Vestnik Permskogo universiteta: Rossijskaâ i zarubežnaâ filologiâ (Oct 2017)
FICTIONAL WORLD OF THE MIDDLE AGES IN K. ISHIGURO’S NOVEL THE BURIED GIANT
Abstract
The article considers the specific character of time and space, the problem of memory and oblivion in the latest novel by K. Ishiguro The Buried Giant (2015). The novel is placed into the broad context of a legendary history of Britain and to a certain extent into the context of the whole mankind’s world. The paper analyzes the world view of a medieval man at the time when Christian ideology overlaid the thick stratum of mythological ideas. Much attention is paid to the image of Sir Gawain, the defender of Christian humanity, the idea being different from the interpretation of the famous Arthurian Romances focused on love enticements of the knight of the Round Table. It is emphasized that out of the three narrative elements establishing both the composition and the plot, the basic motif is travelling and wandering. This motif is associated with poetics and chronotope embedded in the perception of a mediaeval man as well as of our contemporary. The novel narrates about the complexity and entanglement of human destinies, solitude and repentance, memory and oblivion, love and forgiveness. Ishiguro turns to the global and at the same time personal issues of existence applying myths, stories and fantastic motifs. Being written for intellectuals, Ishiguro’s novel represents a kind of science fiction with a distinct historical background and approaches the genre of parable in its finale. It is concluded that Ishiguro’s work is the novel-admonition that fictionalizes the perception of history as of a lesson for future generations.
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