Lit Section III: Kazuo Ishiguro's background + novel summary

Vocabulary flashcards covering Kazuo Ishiguro's biography, bibliography, and key plot elements, characters, and literary themes in The Remains of the Day.

Kazuo Ishiguro

Nagasaki-born contemporary British author who won the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature and wrote The Remains of the Day.

Shizuo Ishiguro

An oceanographer and father of Kazuo Ishiguro who moved his family to Great Britain in 1960 to work on a North Sea oil drilling project.

University of Kent

The university where Kazuo Ishiguro earned his undergraduate degree in English and philosophy.

Lorna Anne McDougall

Kazuo Ishiguro's wife, whom he met while working with unhoused and impoverished populations in London.

Angela Carter

Famous British novelist known for her reimagining of fairy tales who taught Kazuo Ishiguro in the Creative Writing program at the University of East Anglia.

Malcolm Bradbury

Literary critic and novelist who mentored Ian McEwan and taught Kazuo Ishiguro at the University of East Anglia.

Introduction 7: Stories by New Writers

An anthology highlighting emerging authors that featured Kazuo Ishiguro's earliest published short stories.

A Pale View of Hills

Kazuo Ishiguro's 1982 debut novel centering on Etsuko, a Japanese survivor of the Nagasaki atomic bombing living in rural England.

Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize

An award celebrating regional British literature won by Ishiguro for A Pale View of Hills, now known as the Ondaatje Prize.

An Artist of the Floating World

Ishiguro's 1986 novel set in post-WWII Japan focusing on Masuji Ono, a painter who created propaganda for the imperial government.

Masuji Ono

The narrator of An Artist of the Floating World, an artist who struggles to recognize his culpability in corrupting art for imperial propaganda.

Lawrence Graver

The New York Times critic who praised Ishiguro's dazzling tonal control over Stevens' voice in his review of The Remains of the Day.

Merchant Ivory Productions

The film company founded by James Ivory and Ismail Merchant that produced the 1993 film adaptation of The Remains of the Day.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Booker Award-winning novelist and screenwriter who wrote many film adaptations for Merchant Ivory Productions, including Howards End.

The Unconsoled

Ishiguro's 1995 novel about a classical musician named Ryder, heavily influenced by absurdist writers like Franz Kafka and Milan Kundera.

When We Were Orphans

Ishiguro's 2000 quasi-mystery novel set in London and Shanghai exploring the struggle to make sense of an irrecoverable past.

Never Let Me Go

Ishiguro's 2005 science-fiction novel exploring mortality and human nature through technological advancements, later adapted into a 2010 film.

Living

A 2022 film adapted from Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru with a screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Buried Giant

Ishiguro's 2015 historical fantasy novel set in post-Arthurian England featuring figures like Sir Gawain and King Brennus.

Klara and the Sun

Ishiguro's 2021 science-fiction novel examining artificial intelligence, consciousness, and the definition of a meaningful life.

Sara Danius

Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy who delivered the Nobel Literature Committee speech honoring Kazuo Ishiguro in 2017.

Stevens

The protagonist and narrator of The Remains of the Day, an intensely formal and restrained head butler at Darlington Hall.

Mr. Farraday

The wealthy American gentleman who purchases Darlington Hall in 1956 and encourages Stevens to engage in bantering and take a vacation.

Lord Darlington

The former owner of Darlington Hall, an English nobleman who attempted to influence European diplomacy to soften the Treaty of Versailles.

Bantering

Lighthearted, humorous conversation enjoyed by Mr. Farraday that causes Stevens professional discomfort and difficulty.

Dignity

The central professional trait defined by Stevens as a butler's ability to maintain their professional persona regardless of private emotions.

Leonard

Stevens' late brother who died in a military operation under a general whom Stevens' father later served as a personal valet.

Mr. Stevens

Stevens' father, an esteemed elderly butler who takes a demoted under-butler role at Darlington Hall and dies during the 1923 international conference.

Miss Kenton

The former housekeeper at Darlington Hall (later Mrs. Benn) who maintains a complex, emotionally fraught relationship with Stevens.

M. Dupont

Stevens' pseudonym for an extremely illustrious French guest at the 1923 Darlington Hall conference whose support was sought to soften policy on Germany.

Mr. Lewis

An American senator who attends the 1923 international conference at Darlington Hall and criticizes noble amateur diplomacy.

Giffen and Co.

A prominent silver polish company located in Mursden that Stevens recalls when reflecting on the domestic duties of a great butler.

Joachim von Ribbentrop

The German ambassador to Great Britain who leveraged Lord Darlington's influence to build support for Nazi foreign policy interests.

Sir Oswald Mosley

Leader of the British fascist Blackshirts organisation with whom Lord Darlington briefly associated before cutting ties due to Mosley's anti-Semitism.

Ruth and Sarah

The two Jewish housemaids at Darlington Hall dismissed by Stevens under Lord Darlington's brief ban on Jewish staff in the 1930s.

Mr. Smith

A politically active villager in Moscombe who argues that dignity belongs to all free citizens who exercise independent thought in political affairs.

Mr. Cardinal

Lord Darlington's godson and a columnist who confronts Stevens about how Lord Darlington is being used as a pawn in Nazi appeasement strategies.

Appeasement

The conciliatory diplomatic approach taken toward Nazi Germany's foreign expansionism in which Lord Darlington was naively complicit.

Rose Garden Hotel

The location in Little Compton, Cornwall, where Stevens and Miss Kenton meet to talk over tea during Stevens' trip.

Weymouth

The seaside town where Stevens sits on a pier, converses with a retired butler, and resolves to make the best of what remains of his day.