“Stop … and remember”: Memory and ageing in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels

Journal article

Abstract:: This article foregrounds representations of ageing and memory within Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels, particularly Never Let Me Go (2005) and, the less critically considered, The Buried Giant (2015). While criticism and reviews touch upon themes of ageing, loneliness, and loss of bodily function, scholars are yet to reveal either the centrality of this to Ishiguro’s work or how this might speak to real-life questions surrounding ageing. Few readers of Never Let Me Go realise that in writing it Ishiguro’s guiding question was ‘how can I get young people to go through the experience of old people’? The arguments here seek to restore such authorly intentions to prominence. Ishiguro is more interested in socio-cultural meanings of ageing than biologically impoverished memories: this article examines the shifting relationships Ishiguro presents between memory and age as regards what happens to the ways in which memories are valued, and how people might be valuable (or not) for their memories. Interdisciplinary with age studies and social gerontology, this article demonstrates how Ishiguro both contributes to, and contends with, socially constructed concepts of ageing. In refocusing Ishiguro criticism onto reminiscence rather than nostalgia, this article aims to put ageing firmly on the agenda of future research.

Files:: [1841964X - American, British and Canadian Studies] Stop ... a...

(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 250.2KB, Terms of use)

Language:: English
Keywords:: age studies

reminiscence

memory studies

old age

identity

ageing

narrative

gerontology
Pubs id:: pubs:966870
UUID:: uuid:e1bf57c7-9469-4f17-b5ed-0d97f4ee6c03
Local pid:: pubs:966870
Source identifiers:: 966870
Deposit date:: 2019-01-30
ARK identifier:: ark:/29072/ora_e1bf57c794694f17b5ed0d97f4ee6c03

Copyright holder:: Charlwood, C
Notes:: This article has been published under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND lisence.

If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record