MOD B HSC ESSAY

intro

• kazuo ishiguro’s 1986 postmodernist novel, malleability of personal identity, unreliable protagonist Masuji Ono, thatcher administration 1980s england, shifting social dynamics of post-war Japan, individual perceptions of morality.

• postmodern techniques fragmented and non linear, subjectivity of truth shifting sociopolitical landscape

• hegemonisation of culture on tensions between older and younger generations in post atomic japan torn between traditional values and westernisation

• role of artist, inherent politicisation of art in society in conflict, upheaval of thatchers eng;land

• through an examinsation of the subjectivity of memory and identity, ishiguro explores the macro and micro implications of the alienation of individuals from their culture and their actions in a time of socipolitical upheaval

para 1 thesis

retrospective and non linear structure, postmodernist nature of inherently unreliable nature of humans through ono’s limited and fallible perspective of the past

para 1 evidence

1. bridge of hesitation october 1948, liminal space between shifting worlds, psychological barriers between past and present

2. setsuko’s initial urging of ono to take “precautionary steps” in noriko’s marriage arrangements, later denial of this statement, deliberate structural unreliability postmodern notion of no stable truth

3. “how difficult it is to see past the dogmatic fervours of one’s day” ishiguro 2016, nostalgia entraps ono and enables self justification

4. oneiric imagery of “i find my memory of it merging with the sounds and images from all those evenings…the smell of deep fried food” fragmentation and reassembly of past events, memory dictated by emotion not logic

5. onos implication that miyakes withdrawal from marriage proposals was because of changing social codes, framing himself as a bystander, preserving his self image as patriarch upholding traditional values

para 1 conclusive sentence

ishiguro employs a palimpsest of flashbacks to shed light on the moral relativism of human actions within contexts of sociopolitical upheaval, highlighting how personal identity is moulded by our own subjective truths

para 2 thesis

ono’s resistance to post war cultural zeitgeist, personal and collective identity shifts with sociopolitical changes, subsequent tensions on micro level

para 2 context

simultaneously reflects post war japan and shift from imperial values to americanised culture, and self reliance and material wealth prioritised in thatchers england, melding of cultural influences “thwarts conventional constructions of englishness and japaneseness” karni 2015, enduring value

para 2 evidence

1. october 1948 ono to ichiro “it is more interesting…to pretend to be someone like lord yoshitsune” large scale social conflict reflects onto microcosm of family

2. “shattered buildings” “tree looking oddly incongruous in its new setting” fragmentation of onos nationalistic identity through physical erosion, familiar foreignness of our age of globalisation” cheng 2010

3. ono’s to taro towards end “sometimes japan has come to look like a small child learning from a strange adult” malleability of national identity

para 2 conclusive sentence

ono’s inability to engage with the changing zeitgeist,leaving him ideologically stranded within a world experiencing the hegemonisation of cultures

para 3 thesis

politicisation of art in social upheaval through ono’s narrative arc, textual integrity of novel, challenge dominant assumptions of political agendas and creative expression being mutually exclusive

para 3 evidence

1. soft visual imagery “fragile lantern light” mori-san flashback, painterly quality, aesthetic idealism of original artistic intent, contrast of ‘pictures of the floating world’ ukiyo-e art with propaganda

2. ono to mori-san “in such troubled times as these artists must learn to value something more tangible than those pleasures which disappear with the morning light” art acquires moral meaning in social unrest

3. ono’s preoccupations with status over artistic integrity “my painting ‘eyes to the horizon’ received a certain level of recognition throughout the city'“

4. full circle moment at end “paint plants and flowers…for my own amusement” dymistification of past, reconcile of narrative and reality, ono decentered in narrative of japan, inability to move forward reflected in transition back into floating world