HyperCultura (Apr 2022)
An Artist of the Floating World: An Interdisciplinary Perspective
Abstract
Kazuo Ishiguro acknowledges the fallibility of the human condition, and herein lies the therapeutic core of his novels. The current study proposes a theoretical approach to Ishiguro’s second novel (1989) from an interdisciplinary perspective on the main character’s narrative. In the first part, Henry James' interpretation of literature applies to Masuji Ono’s totalitarian views to link fiction to real life. The second part discusses the relativity of choices and decisions based on transgenerational ethics as presented in Strauss and Howe’s Fourth Turning Theory. The third part focuses on Ono’s narrative unreliability as a form of confabulation. Since Ono’s recollections often clash with what his family can remember about certain events, the painter may be suffering from the false memory effect as a form of healing old trauma. The last subchapter explains the concept of ‘mono no aware’ from a scientific perspective. The Japanese understanding of the ‘pathos of things’ is reflected in the second law of thermodynamics, which stipulates that universal disorder will always increase. While young Ono refuses to accept the floating world, old Ono seeks to make peace with the transitory nature of existence, which is equivalent to accepting the entropy of the Universe.
