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Violent Authenticity in Ishiguro ACCEPTED VERSION.pdf (159.46 kB)

Violent authenticity: the politics of objects and images in Ishiguro

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 17:16 authored by Dominic DeanDominic Dean
Kazuo Ishiguro’s work explores acute anxieties towards the human and material objects – from dead bodies to artworks – that circulate in a globalised world and seem to threaten its future. Tracing these objects alongside the images through which Ishiguro’s characters attempt to navigate from compromised pasts into complicated futures, this article develops a new reading across Ishiguro’s narratives of globalisation, migration, and mass production. Though Ishiguro’s work eludes transparent political allegory, there is nevertheless an underlying consistency in the politics of objects and images found there – one that uncannily reflects, and audaciously responds to, a fetish for authenticity that destroys the future even when seeking to secure it. The article looks across Ishiguro’s oeuvre, where – from jazz records and sunglasses in Nocturnes (2009), to the cassette tape referenced in Never Let Me Go’s (2005) title – the treatment of second-hand, mass-produced and borrowed objects mirrors the abuse of humans perceived to lack authenticity, for the sake of preserving an image of ‘original’ – ethnic, national, or even ecological – value. Ishiguro’s political significance emerges through his exposing the gaps between object and image, countering violent authenticity with private autonomy, unexpectedly achieved with help from the most banal objects.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Textual Practice

ISSN

0950-236X

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

1

Volume

35

Page range

129-151

Department affiliated with

  • English Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2019-04-12

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-04-12

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-04-11

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