1. Hyphenated identity: a Japanese-British Look back in Space and Time A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

2. Kazuo IshiguroKazuo Ishiguro (b. 1954) Born in Japan, in Nagasaki. Relocated to England at the age of five. Major literary influences: Chekhov and Dostoevsky. Author of short stories, screenplays, and seven novels. All his works were nominated for literary prizes or won them. His first two novels are set in Japan; they’d been written before he went back in 1989.

3. Ishiguro and Japan Japan of his novels is “fictional”, though verisimilarly depicted. “My personal Japan would be saved in a book” (Ishiguro). “I wanted to preserve my memories of Japan—at least what I thought were my memories” (Ishiguro). “I’m not entirely like English people because I’ve been brought up by Japanese parents in a Japanese-speaking home” (Ishiguro). Denies influence of Japanese literature. Not a Japanese writer.

4. A Pale View of Hills (1982) English novel about Japan. First-person narration. Set in Nagasaki and in English countryside. Time: early 1950s; 1970s. Power and deceptiveness of memory. Unreliable narrator. Mono no aware, appreciation of transience of things.

5. A Pale View of Hills: What happens? Etsuko – the narrator; Keiko – Etsuko's elder, ‘Japanese’ daughter; Niki – Etsuko's younger, ‘English’ daughter; Sachiko – the woman Etsuko recalls; Mariko – Sachiko's little daughter.

6. A Pale View of Hills: Names Niki – a ‘hybrid’ name. Keiko – “a happy child,” named after her grandmother. Mariko – “circle.” Sashiko – “child of bliss.” Etsuko - “child of delight.” Note: the author’s own name in the novel.

7. A Pale View of Hills: History Beyond a Personal Story Defeated, occupied Japan coming to terms with its present. Post-war revival. Interactions with foreigners. Social changes (ex., gender roles). Changes in daily life (Westernization). Future associated with the West.

8. Japan in the 1950s

11. Suppressing the Past: “Nothing to worry about” The unspoken past of the characters and the country: Etsuko’s family; her second marriage; Sashiko’s story; Keiko. Militarism and fascism; “the most evil disaster in [Japan’s] entire history”; the loss of imperial Japan; the atomic bomb attack.

12. The Trauma of Nagasaki: The Peace Park Monument

13. The Trauma of Nagasaki: August 9 th 1945

14. The Trauma of Nagasaki…

15. The Trauma of Nagasaki: 87.000 died (a picture from Hiroshima )

16. The Trauma of Nagasaki: A Leveled City

17. The Trauma of Nagasaki: Survivors

18. The Trauma of Nagasaki: Life Goes On

19. A ‘Hybrid’ Vision “[M]y perspectives are slightly different” (Ishiguro): a view from outside. A probe into history. “A pale view” – the author’s attempt at capturing an evasive memory of his country of origin. An analysis of the ways of memory. A self-analysis.