A Great Butler The Unreliable Narrator In Kazuo Ishiguro S The Remains Of The Day

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Würzburg, language: English, abstract: In Kazuo Ishiguro ́s The Remains of the Day the first person narrator Stevens, a butler on the verge of retirement, undertakes a journey to meet – for what is likely the last time in their lives – his former coworker and love interest Miss Kenton. At the same time, he tries to come to terms with his past by reexamining his memories of his life at Darlington Hall, the choices he made and the values he had. Throughout his account it becomes increasingly obvious that Stevens ́s narration cannot be trusted completely. His comments on, and interpretation of, past events in his life and his portrayal of himself and others in his tale expose him as an unreliable narrator. However, his attempts to deceive himself and others are possibly the most interesting and telltale aspect of the narrative. After all, “the use of an unreliable narrator draws attention to a character ́s psychology.” Paradoxically, the narrator reveals most about himself and his life when he is trying to obscure the truth.

BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, here is “an intricate and dazzling novel” (The New York Times) about the perfect butler and his fading, insular world in post-World War II England. This is Kazuo Ishiguro's profoundly compelling portrait of a butler named Stevens. Stevens, at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spending a day on a country drive, embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the "great gentleman," Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's "greatness," and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,75, University of Frankfurt (Main), 10 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This text examines the concept of unreliable narration in Kazuo Ishiguro's "The Remains of the Day". Against the background of the novel's plot the questions arises to what extent the reader can trust the first person narrator Stevens, who is recalling events that have taken place almost 30 years ago. Is he always telling nothing but the truth or does he deliberately leave out important facts that might cast a slur at him or other persons in the novel or perhaps might destroy his self-image as a professional butler. Stevens pretends to be an honourable butler but how far can he be regarded to be honest to the reader respectively the narratee whome he addresses explicitly (Ishiguro 2005: 8 “Nevertheless, I think you will understand [...]”)? In this context it is even more important to question his honesty towards himself; does he relentlessly tell the truth or does he betray even himself? In order to answer these evolving questions it is first of all necessary to give a brief outline of the literal terms point of view and unreliable narration in general. Being familiar with these expressions the next step that leads to a better understanding of the protagonist’s character is the analysis of the narrative structure in “The Remains of the Day”. This chapter includes the examination of the novel’s language as well as the point of view and the (un)reliability of the narrator. As far as the question of (un)reliability is answered it is mandatory to consider Stevens’ blindness and to ask if in the end a possible insight can be detected. This chapter has to be subdivided which means it has to be regarded in either an ideological /political context as well as in a private /social context. Finally, in the conclusion the findings will be summarized in order to answer the question: To what extent can self-deception and insight be detected with the (un)reliable narrator Stevens in Kazuo Ishiguros Novel “The Remains of the Day”?

From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of the Booker Prize–winning novel The Remains of the Day comes this stunning work of soaring imagination. Born in early-twentieth-century Shanghai, Banks was orphaned at the age of nine after the separate disappearances of his parents. Now, more than twenty years later, he is a celebrated figure in London society; yet the investigative expertise that has garnered him fame has done little to illuminate the circumstances of his parents' alleged kidnappings. Banks travels to the seething, labyrinthine city of his memory in hopes of solving the mystery of his own, painful past, only to find that war is ravaging Shanghai beyond recognition-and that his own recollections are proving as difficult to trust as the people around him. Masterful, suspenseful and psychologically acute, When We Were Orphans offers a profound meditation on the shifting quality of memory, and the possibility of avenging one’s past.

From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of the Booker Prize–winning novel The Remains of the Day In the face of the misery in his homeland, the artist Masuji Ono was unwilling to devote his art solely to the celebration of physical beauty. Instead, he put his work in the service of the imperialist movement that led Japan into World War II. Now, as the mature Ono struggles through the aftermath of that war, his memories of his youth and of the "floating world"—the nocturnal world of pleasure, entertainment, and drink—offer him both escape and redemption, even as they punish him for betraying his early promise. Indicted by society for its defeat and reviled for his past aesthetics, he relives the passage through his personal history that makes him both a hero and a coward but, above all, a human being.

Continuum Contemporaries will be a wonderful source of ideas and inspiration for members of book clubs and readings groups, as well as for literature students.The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to 30 of the most popular, most acclaimed, and most influential novels of recent years. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question. The books in the series will all follow the same structure:a biography of the novelist, including other works, influences, and, in some cases, an interview; a full-length study of the novel, drawing out the most important themes and ideas; a summary of how the novel was received upon publication; a summary of how the novel has performed since publication, including film or TV adaptations, literary prizes, etc.; a wide range of suggestions for further reading, including websites and discussion forums; and a list of questions for reading groups to discuss.

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, RWTH Aachen University (English Department), course: Fictional Histories and (Auto)biographies: Julian Barnes - Kazuo Ishiguro - Graham Swift, language: English, abstract: This retrospection gradually reveals Stevens' peculiar character. Accordingly,The Remains of the Dayis a novel about the central figure's character and the change it undergoes in the course of the years. Characterisation plays a very important role in it. The use of diary-like entries for certain stops on Stevens' journey suggest the explicit characterisation of the figure through the first-person narrator. However, the reader is confronted with an unreliable narration that combines homodiegetic and extradiegetic features in regular intervals. Thus the reader cannot fully rely on the statements of the narrator in order to get a picture of his character. What is much more telling is the butler's way of hiding and overlooking things, his not-telling, which characterises him far better and more objectively than his own notion of himself does. Due to the narrative perspective and Stevens' few relations in life4there are not many subsidiary figures who can serve as an additional source describing the butler's traits of character. Nevertheless, there is one figure in the novel which can give information about the former stateandchange of Stevens' character. This figure is Miss Kenton, who has been the housekeeper at Darlington Hall for many years and who developed a relationship to Stevens that can be called the most emotional he had ever had. It is the purpose of this paper to analyse her role in the characterisation of Stevens. However, I want to stress that this paper is not supposed to be a full and exhausting characterisation of the figure of the butler. It is rather intended to deal with the different aspects the figure of Miss Kenton contributes to the characterisation and change of character Stevens undergoes in the course of the novel. This will be done by focussing the following aspects: 1. Miss Kenton's direct statements about Stevens. 2. The relationship between Stevens and the housekeeper and what it tells about Stevens' emotional life. 3. The interaction between the two figures. This aspect will briefly deal with their dialogues and will be combined with the comparison of Stevens' and Miss Kenton's highly contrary natures and what they mean with regard to the revelation of Stevens' character traits. According to these aspects, my analysis will mostly remain on the story-level only. The discourse level might be touched as far as the narrative situation is concerned, since most of the information about Stevens is conveyed through his own narration.

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Frankfurt (Main) (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: This paper analyes the book „The Remains oft he Day“ from Kazuo Ishiguro. It is told from the perspective of Stevens, an elderly head butler, who, during a six- day road trip to England’s West Country, reflects on his past at the country mansion Darlington Hall. He dedicated his life to serving Lord Darlington, a labelled traitor and Nazi sympathizer, and to the task of being a “great” butler. Shortly after the war, Mr Farraday, an American purchases the estate and minimizes the staff drastically. Under him, Darlington Hall is no longer the meeting point for “the wealthy and influential”