Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day: A Historiographical Approach

Abstract

This paper attempts to analyze Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, in the light of various ramifications of postmodern critical historiographical approaches. It investigates the different narrative strategies Ishiguro uses to narrate historical events and dismantle objectivity mainly; backshadowing, intermixing of historical and personal incidents, and first-person unreliable narrator. Great deal of Ishiguro’s text depth and complexity arises from the unreliability of the narrator whose narration presents several interpretive versions and controversial issues.