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Identity, Identification and Narcissistic Phantasy in the Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro

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Identity, Identification and Narcissistic Phantasy in the Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro IDENTITY, IDENTIFICATION AND NARCISSISTIC PHANTASY IN THE NOVELS OF KAZUO ISHIGURO DIANE A. WEBSTER THOMAS A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of East London in collaboration with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. July, 2012 Abstract Identity, Identification and Narcissistic Phantasy in the Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro This thesis explores Ishiguro’s novels in the light of his preoccupation with emotional upheaval: the psychological devastations of trauma, persisting in memory from childhood into middle and old age. He demonstrates how the first person narrators maintain human dignity and self-esteem unknowingly, through specific, psychic defence mechanisms and the related behaviours, typical of narcissism. Ishiguro’s vision has affinities with the post-Kleinian Object-Relations psychoanalytic literature on borderline states of mind and narcissism. I propose a hybrid, critical framework which takes account of this, along with the key aspects of the traditional humanist novel, held in tension with certain deconstructive tactics from postmodernist writing. Post-Kleinian theory and practice sit within the humanist approach in any case, with both the ethical and the reality-seeking imperatives, paramount. Ishiguro presents humanism in the ‘deficit’ model and this framework helps to bring it into view. The argument is supported by close readings of the six novels in which the trauma concerns different forms of fragmentation from wars, socio-historic upheaval, geographical dislocation, and emotional disconnection. All involve psychic fragmentation of the ego in the central character, through splitting and projection. Ishiguro, himself, perceives some sorts of object-relations, psychic mechanisms, operating at the unconscious level, which he calls ‘appropriation’ and which the post- Kleinians have theorised. They have found a range of variants of projective identification into the ‘other’ with the re-introjection of a distorted self, suffused with narcissistic phantasy. While these defences are protective, Ishiguro seems aware that excessive projection comes at a cost: depletion of affect, weak identity, limited symbol formation, thinking and self-knowledge, and a diminished capacity to give meaning to relationships. These factors are all borne out in his narrators’ omnipotent behaviours – in re-enaction. Ishiguro’s narrative methods produce figurative representations of the narrators’ internal worlds through his external worlds of settings, while other conventions of the novel, such as plot, character, genre and so on, are reconfigured in their deficit versions. ii Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: A Review of the Literature ................................................................ 10 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 10 1. General critical works .......................................................................................... 10 2. Seven critical appraisals ........................................................................................ 11 3. Psychological Insights: Towards Psychic Mechanisms ....................................... 14 4. Depth, the Unconscious, Modernism. ................................................................... 16 5. Values ................................................................................................................... 16 6. Implicit Psychic Mechanisms .............................................................................. 17 7. Psychoanalytic Perspectives ................................................................................. 19 Critical Summary ..................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 2: Method – A Framework and Table ................................................... 24 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 24 1. The Traditional Humanist Novel ......................................................................... 25 2. The ‘Deficit’ Model of the Traditional Novel ...................................................... 27 3. Post-Kleinian Thought ......................................................................................... 31 − Central themes & writing approaches ................................................................. 31 1. Trauma and the universal struggle between narcissism & object-relatedness ..... 31 2. The psychic mechanisms and the spectrum of narcissistic organisations ............ 31 3. Genre .................................................................................................................... 32 4. Situation – geographical and personal ................................................................. 33 5. Structure ............................................................................................................... 34 6. Plot ....................................................................................................................... 35 7. Character and motivation ..................................................................................... 36 8.1 Narrative viewpoint and voice ............................................................................ 36 8.2 Dramatic irony, counter-transference & the ‘total transference situation’ ........ 37 9. Humour ................................................................................................................ 38 10. Settings – space, place as mental landscapes ..................................................... 39 11. Imagery .............................................................................................................. 40 12. Diction ................................................................................................................ 40 13. Post-modernist inter-textual allusions ................................................................ 42 14. Art ...................................................................................................................... 43 Table ........................................................................................................................ 44 Chapter 3: Theory .................................................................................................. 45 The Post-Kleinian Psychoanalytic Model of Identity, Identification and Narcissistic Phantasy ................................................................................................................... 45 Post-Kleinian concepts in the field of narcissism and borderline states .................. 49 Narcissism – the psychoanalytic dynamic in the novels .......................................... 50 Key post-Kleinian concepts ...................................................................................... 51 1. Identity, identification and personality formation ................................................ 51 2. Trauma and psychic disturbance .......................................................................... 54 3. The narcissistic defences for psychic survival ..................................................... 56 4. Symbolisation ....................................................................................................... 60 iii 5. Reading narcissism – two post-Kleinian clinical accounts .................................. 61 6. Narcissistic organisations in the novels ............................................................... 62 Chapter 4: A Pale View of Hills ............................................................................. 65 Part 1 ........................................................................................................................ 70 Part 2 ........................................................................................................................ 77 Chapter 5: An Artist of the Floating World .......................................................... 84 Part 1 October 1948 War damage, fathers ............................................................... 90 Part 2 April 1949 Betrayal, the Miai ........................................................................ 93 Part 3 November 1949 Leaders, artistic integrity .................................................... 95 Part 4 June 1950 Elegy ........................................................................................... 101 Chapter 6: The Remains of the Day .................................................................... 104 A Car Journey – en route: 1. The relationship with Lord Darlington .............................................................. 110 2. The relationship with Father .............................................................................. 115 3. The relationship with Miss Kenton/Mrs Benn ................................................... 119 Chapter 7: The Unconsoled ................................................................................. 124 Part 1 Day 1 ............................................................................................................ 132 Part 2 Day 2 ............................................................................................................ 135 Part 3 Day 3 ...........................................................................................................
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