Writing the Female Body: A Study of Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills

Abstract

Ishiguro projects the struggle of a migrated woman and the search for her identity primarily, at the same time subtly describing the pains and fears of a woman who traverses through the phase of pregnancy and imminent motherhood. Contemporary literary criticism may focus on the problematics of the conscious and subconscious desires of the characters, but body essentially is the locus of all human adventures which are represented through desires, moods, fears, creativity and feelings. The paper discusses Ishiguro’s depiction of pregnancy in A Pale View of Hills and his projection of female body in order to determine that pregnancy and procreation are no longer taboo subjects and to analyze the impact pregnancy has on female. Kristeva talks about the female body, motherhood and pain which is not a construct of the society and culture. She presents a universal and natural interpretation of womanhood. Ishiguro effectively presents this pressure of being a female through Etsuko’s character in A Pale View of Hills. Etsuko’s own painful experience of pregnancy and maternity has made it difficult for her to believe that for other women, pregnancy can be a matter of happiness and joy.