Kazuo Ishiguro`s 'The Buried Giant': Collective Amnesia and the Collapse of Fantasy

Abstract

It might be relevant to settle on what this paper will take into consideration when using the term time. Essentially, it stands to reason that, as far as the analysis of the texts is concerned, time will be understood from a narratological perspective, using Gerard Genette’s critical approach. For the purpose of this study, though, time will only be considered in relation to one of the three determinations the French scholar makes, namely “order”. It is the way in which the temporal order of succession is considered against “story time” and “pseudo-time” (Genette 1980: 35) that has always fascinated readers and critics alike in Ishiguro’s prose – that is, the anachronies that fill all his narratives. The most important feature of Ishiguro’s novels is the way in which the narrative toys with the distinction between narrating time and narrated time and all the difficulties that may ensue when these are considered from different standpoints.