Az Elme Örvényében Az Emlékezés Mintázatai Kazuo Ishiguro Regényeiben
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DOI: 10.15774/PPKE.BTK.2017.004 Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem Bölcsészet- és Társadalomtudományi Kar Irodalomtudományi Doktori Iskola Dabis Melinda Az elme örvényében Az emlékezés mintázatai Kazuo Ishiguro regényeiben Doktori (PhD) értekezés Az Irodalomtudományi Doktori Iskola vezetője: Prof. Szelestei Nagy László DSc egyetemi tanár A Modern Irodalomtudományi Műhely vezetője: Horváth Kornélia PhD egyetemi docens Témavezető Tóta Péter Benedek PhD egyetemi docens Budapest, 2017 DOI: 10.15774/PPKE.BTK.2017.004 Pázmány Péter Catholic University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Doctoral School of Literary Studies Dabis Melinda In the Vortex of the Mind Patterns of Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels Doctoral (PhD) dissertation Head of Doctoral School: Prof. László Szelestei Nagy DSc Head of Doctoral Programme in Modern Literary Studies: Assoc. Prof. Kornélia Horváth PhD Supervisor Assoc. Prof. Benedek Péter Tóta PhD Budapest, 2017 2 DOI: 10.15774/PPKE.BTK.2017.004 CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 4 Chapter 1 The Research Framework .................................................................................................. 7 Ishiguro and Japan .......................................................................................................................... 7 The evolution of an idea ............................................................................................................... 11 Why Escher? Why Hofstadter? .................................................................................................... 13 About the structure ....................................................................................................................... 16 Chapter 2 The Art of Not Telling ..................................................................................................... 19 Formal aspect ............................................................................................................................... 23 Layers of time .............................................................................................................................. 25 Analepses ..................................................................................................................................... 28 Repeating analepses ..................................................................................................................... 31 The art of not telling ..................................................................................................................... 33 Dealing with the past .................................................................................................................... 46 Dealing with the future ................................................................................................................. 51 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................... 55 Chapter 3 In the Vortex of the Mind ................................................................................................ 57 The many facets of The Unconsoled ............................................................................................ 59 Strange Loops ............................................................................................................................... 64 Loops of space .............................................................................................................................. 66 Passages........................................................................................................................................ 67 Memories...................................................................................................................................... 70 Circular tracks .............................................................................................................................. 72 Loops in time ................................................................................................................................ 73 Time travel ................................................................................................................................... 74 Character loops ............................................................................................................................. 75 The Ryder doubles ....................................................................................................................... 76 Memory characters ....................................................................................................................... 78 Enactments of the past or an alternative present .......................................................................... 79 Shadow characters ........................................................................................................................ 80 A side remark ............................................................................................................................... 82 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................... 82 Chapter 4 Shaping the Past............................................................................................................... 85 The formal aspect ......................................................................................................................... 86 1 DOI: 10.15774/PPKE.BTK.2017.004 The question of genre ................................................................................................................... 88 Memory in temporal verticality – the temporal embedded structure ........................................... 97 Visual memory ........................................................................................................................... 111 Tangled hierarchies .................................................................................................................... 114 The loops – tangled hierarchies .................................................................................................. 117 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................. 120 Chapter 5 On the margin of The Buried Giant ............................................................................... 122 Chapter 5 On the margin of The Buried Giant ............................................................................... 124 Chapter 6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 126 Overarching themes ................................................................................................................... 130 New horizons ............................................................................................................................. 131 Closing remarks – the triangle ................................................................................................... 132 Works cited .................................................................................................................................... 134 Appendix 1 ..................................................................................................................................... 142 Appendix 2 ..................................................................................................................................... 144 Összefoglaló ................................................................................................................................... 155 Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 156 2 DOI: 10.15774/PPKE.BTK.2017.004 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The years of part-time research and dissertation writing were not easy. But along the difficult road I found and was found by people who helped; opportunities which gave essential background and experiences that inspired me. I would like to express my gratitude to and for them. The Campus Hungary programme of Balassi Intézet for financially assisting me in a most inspiring research visit to Newcastle University, UK in 2013. My brief stay in Newcastle, the university facilities and library open 24/7, the introductory lectures for PhD students I accidentally attended opened new horizons to what doctoral research and support could be. The Library of the Central European University, Hungary, where I spent long hours of dedicated work using the extensive collection. Additionally, browsing the shelves aimlessly in the breaks led me to volumes of the most varied subjects that in turn opened up new alleys of research and allowed me to discover new aspects and perspectives in my work. The M. C. Escher Foundation, who kindly gave me the permission to include selected Escher images in my paper. The Ishiguro conference, organized by METU Ankara, Turkey in 2011, was a turning point in my studies and research. The encouraging remarks, among others from Cynthia Wong, were highly motivating and put me