The Cambridge Companion To Kazuo Ishiguro

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.

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

The Cambridge Companion to British Fiction since 1945 provides insight into the critical traditions shaping the literary landscape of modern Britain.

Gives a comprehensive critical picture of the development of British fiction from the election of Thatcher to the present.

This collection of essays offers new perspectives from Japan on Nobel Prize–winning author Kazuo Ishiguro. It analyses the Japanese-born British author from the vantage point of his birthplace, showing how Ishiguro remains greatly indebted to Japanese culture and sensibilities. The influence of Japanese literature and film is evident in Ishiguro’s early novels as he deals with the problem of the atomic bomb and Japan’s war responsibility, yet his later works also engage with folk tales and the modern popular culture of Japan. The chapters consider a range of Japanese influences on Ishiguro and adaptations of Ishiguro’s work, including literary, cinematic and animated representations. The book makes use of newly archived drafts of Ishiguro’s manuscripts at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas to explore the origins of his oeuvre. It also offers sharp, new examinations of Ishiguro’s work in relation to memory studies, especially in relation to Japan. ​

Balancing close readings of particular novels with a comprehensive survey of the last century of published fiction, this book introduces readers to more than a hundred major and minor novelists.

This Companion focuses on the novel as a global genre and examines its role, impact and development.

One of the most popular contemporary authors, Kazuo Ishiguro has so far produced six highly regarded novels which have won him international acclaim and honours, including the Booker Prize, the Whitbread Award and an OBE for Services to Literature. This Reader's Guide: - Evaluates the various responses to Ishiguro's work, beginning with initial reactions, moving on to key scholarly criticism, and taking note along the way of what Ishiguro has offered - Discusses each of Ishiguro's novels, from A Pale View of the Hills (1982) to Never Let Me Go (2005) - Features three in-depth chapters on Ishiguro's Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day (1993) - Analyses reviews, interviews and scholarly essays and articles in order to situate the novels in the context of Ishiguro's ouevre - Explores themes and issues which are central to the author's fiction, such as narration, ethics and memory. Lucid and insightful, this is an indispensable introductory guide for anyone studying – or simply interested in - the work of this major novelist.