Book News: Key aspects of Ishiguro's oeuvre

 The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro

EDITED BY ANDREW BENNETT

Cambridge UP, 2023

ISBN: 9781108822022

https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/literature/english-literature-after-1945/cambridge-companion-kazuo-ishiguro

The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro offers an accessible introduction to key aspects of the novelist's remarkable body of work. The volume addresses Ishiguro's engagement with fundamental questions of humanity and personal responsibility, with aesthetic value and political valency, with the vicissitudes of memory and historical documentation, and with questions of family, home, and homelessness. 

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Focused through the personal experiences of some of the most memorable characters in contemporary fiction, Ishiguro's writing speaks to the major communitarian questions of our time – questions of nationalism and colonialism, race and ethnicity, migration, war, and cultural memory and social justice. The chapters attend to Ishiguro's highly readable novels while also ranging across his other creative output. Gathering together established and emerging scholars from the UK, Europe, the USA, and East Asia, the volume offers a survey of key works and themes while also moving critical discussion forward in new and challenging ways.

Contents

Part I. Kazuo Ishiguro in the World

1. "Ishiguro and the question of England," Andrew Bennett

2. "Ishiguro and Japan: History in An Artist of the Floating World," Yoshiki Tajiri

3. "Ishiguro and colonialism," Liani Lochner

4. "Immigration and emigration in Ishiguro," Jerrine Tan

5. "Ishiguro and translation," Rebecca Karni

Part II. Literature, Music, and Film

6. "The Ishiguro archive," Vanessa Guignery

7. "The unconsoled of The Unconsoled: Ishiguro and modernism," Ulrika Maude

8. "'A more sophisticated imitation': Ishiguro and the novel," Peter Boxall

9. "Ishiguro and genre fiction," Doug Battersby

10. "Ishiguro's TV and film scripts," Peter Sloane

11. "'I'm a songwriter at heart, even when I'm writing novels': Ishiguro and music," Stephen Benson

Part III. Ethics, Affect, Agency, and Memory

12. "Ethics and agency in Ishiguro's novels," Robert Eaglestone

13. "'Emotional upheaval' in An Artist of the Floating World and The Buried Giant," Cynthia F. Wong

14. "Ishiguro and love," Laura Colombino

15. "Memory and understanding in Ishiguro," Yugin Teo

16. "Ishiguro's irresolution," Ivan Stacy

Andrew Bennett is professor of English at the University of Bristol. He is co-author, with Nicholas Royle, of the best-selling textbooks Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory (6th edn., 2022), and This Thing Called Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing (2nd edn., 2023).