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KAZUO ISHIGURO’S POSTMODERN HYPERTEXTS: GENERIC RE- CONFIGURATIONS IN THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS, AND THE BURIED GIANT A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY YAĞMUR SÖNMEZ DEMİR IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE OCTOBER 2020 Approval of the thesis: KAZUO ISHIGURO’S POSTMODERN HYPERTEXTS: GENERIC RE- CONFIGURATIONS IN THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS, AND THE BURIED GIANT submitted by YAĞMUR SÖNMEZ DEMİR in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature, the Graduate School of Social Sciences of Middle East Technical University by, Prof. Dr. Yaşar KONDAKÇI Dean Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Çiğdem SAĞIN ŞİMŞEK Head of Department Department of Foreign Language Education Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif ÖZTABAK AVCI Supervisor Department of Foreign Language Education Examining Committee Members: Prof. Dr. Nursel İÇÖZ (Head of the Examining Committee) Middle East Technical University Department of Foreign Language Education Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif ÖZTABAK AVCI (Supervisor) Middle East Technical University Department of Foreign Language Education Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali ÇELİKEL Pamukkale University Department of English Language and Literature Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hülya YILDIZ BAĞÇE Middle East Technical University Department of Foreign Language Education Assist. Prof. Dr. Selen AKTARİ SEVGİ Başkent University Department of American Culture and Literature I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name: Yağmur SÖNMEZ DEMİR Signature: iii ABSTRACT KAZUO ISHIGURO’S POSTMODERN HYPERTEXTS: GENERIC RE- CONFIGURATIONS IN THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS, AND THE BURIED GIANT SÖNMEZ DEMİR, Yağmur Ph.D., The Department of English Literature Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif ÖZTABAK AVCI October 2020, 194 pages This study explores to what extent, how, and why “hypertextuality” is employed in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels The Remains of the Day (1989), When We Were Orphans (2000), and The Buried Giant (2015). These novels will be analysed as postmodern “hypertexts” reconfiguring various atavistic literary genres that were once predominant in British literature. Gérard Genette’s concept of the “hypertext” as discussed in Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree and Linda Hutcheon’s theory of parody will constitute the major theoretical background of this study. In addition, Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the “chronotope” and Fredric Jameson’s approach to literary genres will be employed to explore Ishiguro’s approach to and treatment of genres. It will be argued that through his employment of hypertextuality, Ishiguro critically explores the ways in which literary genres such as the country-house novel, the interwar detective fiction, and the Arthurian romance contribute to the construction of English national identity at certain historical conjunctures. iv Keywords: chronotope, genre reconfiguration, English national identity, postmodern hypertextuality v ÖZ KAZUO ISHIGURO’NUN POSTMODERN HİPERMETİNLERİ: GÜNDEN KALANLAR, ÖKSÜZLÜĞÜMÜZ, VE GÖMÜLÜ DEV ESERLERİNDE EDEBİ TÜRLERİ YENİDEN YAPILANDIRMA SÖNMEZ DEMİR, Yağmur Doktora, İngiliz Edebiyatı Bölümü Tez yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Elif ÖZTABAK AVCI Ekim 2020, 194 sayfa Bu çalışma, Kazuo Ishiguro’nun Günden Kalanlar (The Remains of the Day 1989), Öksüzlüğümüz (When We Were Orphans 2000), ve Gömülü Dev (The Buried Giant 2015) romanlarında hipermetinselliğin (hypertextuality) ne derecede, nasıl ve neden kullanıldığını araştırır. Adı geçen romanlar, bir zamanlar İngiliz Edebiyatı’nda baskın olan ve eski kuşaklardan gelen çeşitli edebi türleri yeniden yapılandıran hipermetinler (hypertexts) olarak analiz edilecektir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda, Gérard Genette’in Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree adlı eserinde tartıştığı hipermetin (hypertext) kavramı, Linda Hutcheon’ın parodi teorisi, Mikhail Bakthin’in “chronotope” kavramı ve Fredric Jameson’un edebi türe yaklaşımı bu çalışmanın kuramsal çerçevesini oluşturacaktır. Hipermetinsellik kullanımıyla Ishiguro’nun kır evi romanı (the country-house novel), dünya savaşları arası polisiye romanı (the interwar detective fiction), ve Arthur devri romansı (the Arthurian romance) türlerinin bazı tarihsel dönemlerde İngiliz ulusal kimliğinin oluşturulmasına ne şekillerde katkıda bulunduğunu eleştirel olarak irdelediği öne sürülecektir. vi Anahtar Kelimeler: kronotop, tür yeniden yapılandırması, İngiliz ulusal kimliği, postmodern hipermetin. vii To Masal viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply grateful, first and foremost, to my supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Öztabak Avcı for her guidance, patience, and kindness. Her enthusiasm for Ishiguro’s works has been a source of inspiration and motivation for me. I feel privileged to have completed this dissertation under her supervision. It would not have been completed without her guidance and invaluable suggestions; therefore, I will feel indebted to her all throughout my life. I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude to my dissertation committee members, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hülya Yıldız Bağçe for her invaluable comments, ingenious suggestions, and thought-provoking questions, and Assist. Prof. Dr. Selen Aktari Sevgi for her practical advice and constructive feedback. I also sincerely thank the other members of my thesis defence jury: Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz and Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Çelikel, for their valuable contributions, enlightening feedback, and intriguing comments. My heartfelt appreciations are also for my professors and colleagues at Çankaya University. Many thanks to Prof. Dr. Ertuğrul Koç, Prof. Dr. Özlem Uzundemir, Assist. Prof. Dr. Neslihan Ekmekçioğlu, Assist. Prof. Dr. Berkem Sağlam, and Assist. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kırca for their kindness, constant encouragement, and contributions to my academic life. I wish to express my warmest thanks to my friends who have provided me with moral and emotional support throughout this process. I very much appreciate my dear friend Dr. Rahime Çokay Nebioğlu, who has shed tears of happiness and despair with me and greatly encouraged me in different phases of my PhD studies. Thanks also to Elzem Nazli for his genuine belief, witty remarks and constant support in my success. Thanks should also go to my dearest friends Dr. Gülden Taner, Hale Kıycı, Ayşe Güneş, Ebru Yeğen, Müslüme Demir, Nazan Çakçak, Nesrin Koç and Ezgi Türk for their unwavering belief in me, for their constant encouragement, and for patiently listening to my complaints. ix Last but not least, heartfelt thanks to my family for their endless love, encouragement and faith in me. Special thanks to my husband Hüseyin Demir for his unwavering support and profound belief in my abilities, and for bearing up with me on my most stressful days. And my one and only daughter Masal, this thesis is dedicated to you. x TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM…………………………………………………………………...…iii ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………...iv ÖZ...……………………………………………………………………………..….vi DEDICATION……………………………………………………………...……..viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………….......ix TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………...…xi CHAPTERS 1. INTRODUCTION………………………..………………………………………1 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ………………………..…………………… 11 2.1. “Hypertext”: Definition and Meanings ……………………………… 11 2.2. Postmodernism and Hypertextuality ………………………..……….. 13 2.3. Ishiguro’s Approach to Literary Genre ………………………..…….. 19 2.4. Nation as a Narrative ………………………..……………………….. 26 3. The Remains of the Day: A Reconfiguration of the Country-House Novel …... 33 3.1 A Genealogy of the Hypotext, the Country-House Novel…….……….34 3.2. The Remains of the Day as the Hypertext……………………………. 43 4. When We Were Orphans: A Reconfiguration of the Interwar Detective Fiction 72 4.1. A Genealogy of the Hypotext, the Interwar Detective Fiction………. 73 4.2. When We Were Orphans as the Hypertext …………………………... 82 5. The Buried Giant: A Reconfiguration of the Arthurian Romance……………. 104 5.1. A Genealogy of the Hypotext, the Arthurian Romance ……………. 106 5.2. The Buried Giant as the Hypertext …………………………………. 114 6. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………….….… 145 REFERENCES…. ………………………………………………………………. 151 APPENDICES A. CURRICULUM VITAE ……………………………………………...169 B. TURKISH SUMMARY / TÜRKÇE ÖZET………………………….. 171 C. TEZ İZİN FORMU / THESIS PERMISSION FORM ………...……. 194 xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Kazuo Ishiguro, a widely-acclaimed contemporary novelist, was born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954. When he was five years old, he moved to England with his family because his physical oceanographer father was offered a temporary position in the National Institute of Oceanography. Due to his father’s temporary duty, they planned to go back to Japan, which never occurred. Ishiguro was educated in local English schools, and at the same time, he was raised in accordance with Japanese culture at home by his parents. However, in time his attachment to Japanese culture weakened, leaving its place to English culture. Concerning the country which he was born in, he states, Japan was a very strong place for me because I always believed I would eventually return there, but as it turned out, I never went back. This very important place called Japan which
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