The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro

A lively, accessible and authoritative introduction to the work of Kazuo Ishiguro, one of the leading novelists of our time.

Andrew Bennett (Edited by)

9781108830218, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 March 2023

293 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 2.1 cm, 0.59 kg

The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro offers an accessible introduction to key aspects of the novelist's remarkable body of work. The volume addresses Ishiguro's engagement with fundamental questions of humanity and personal responsibility, with aesthetic value and political valency, with the vicissitudes of memory and historical documentation, and with questions of family, home, and homelessness. Focused through the personal experiences of some of the most memorable characters in contemporary fiction, Ishiguro's writing speaks to the major communitarian questions of our time – questions of nationalism and colonialism, race and ethnicity, migration, war, and cultural memory and social justice. The chapters attend to Ishiguro's highly readable novels while also ranging across his other creative output. Gathering together established and emerging scholars from the UK, Europe, the USA, and East Asia, the volume offers a survey of key works and themes while also moving critical discussion forward in new and challenging ways.

Part I. Kazuo Ishiguro in the World: 1. Ishiguro and the question of England Andrew Bennett
2. Ishiguro and Japan: History in An Artist of the Floating World Yoshiki Tajiri
3. Ishiguro and colonialism Liani Lochner
4. Immigration and emigration in Ishiguro Jerrine Tan
5. Ishiguro and translation Rebecca Karni
Part II. Literature, Music, and Film: 6. The Ishiguro archive Vanessa Guignery
7. The unconsoled of The Unconsoled: Ishiguro and modernism Ulrika Maude
8. 'A more sophisticated imitation': Ishiguro and the novel Peter Boxall
9. Ishiguro and genre fiction Doug Battersby
10. Ishiguro's TV and film scripts Peter Sloane
11. 'I'm a songwriter at heart, even when I'm writing novels': Ishiguro and music Stephen Benson
Part III. Ethics, Affect, Agency, and Memory: 12. Ethics and agency in Ishiguro's novels Robert Eaglestone
13. 'Emotional upheaval' in An Artist of the Floating World and The Buried Giant Cynthia F. Wong
14. Ishiguro and love Laura Colombino
15. Memory and understanding in Ishiguro Yugin Teo
16. Ishiguro's irresolution Ivan Stacy.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]