Reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go

The Alternative Dystopian Imagination
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-87053-3
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales)

Buch, Englisch, 72 Seiten, Format (B × H): 158 mm x 233 mm, Gewicht: 260 g

Reihe: Routledge Focus on Literature

Reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go: The Alternative Dystopian Imagination aims to offer innovative perspectives for the analysis of Nobel-prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s oeuvre through a focus on the genre of science fiction, particularly the novel Never Let Me Go (2005). The study proposes the term "intimate dystopia" to reflect on the passage from totalitarian or external oppressive forces to more "subtle" systems of power. Its interdisciplinary approach combines, apart from literary theory on different genres such as science fiction and memory, race studies, feminism and ecocriticism. It is based on an exhaustive critical and textual analysis that allows for a thorough and nuanced understanding of Ishiguro’s multi-layered novel, covering themes such as the ethical dimensions and gender implications of caregiving, the dystopian portrayal of the environment, the significance of art in the existence of marginalized groups and the genre-related complexities of the text.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pelayo Sañudo, Eva

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Strömungen & Epochen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Gattungen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Writing and his "Intimate Dystopia" Never Let Me Go

Chapter 1. Gendered Capitalism: A Critical Analysis of Educational, Economic and Cultural Systems

The Value of Bodies: Sports, Health and Chastity

Spatial Segregation and Dehumanization

The Ethics of Caring as a (Feminist) Utopia

Chapter 2. Ecocriticism: "Environmental Dystopias" and the Post-Pastoral

Unsettling Environments in Environmental Dystopianism

Hailsham and Beyond: Discovering (the Limits of) a "Phantasy Land"

Chapter 3. Looking for Hope: The Role of Love and Art, and Other Religious Undertones of Redemption

Something to Go On: Deferrals

‘Your Art Will Display your Souls!

A Road to Salvation: Religion, Determinism and Free Will

Chapter 4. “Speculative Memoir”: Blending Autobiography and Science Fiction

Memory, Identity and Writing: Generic Approaches to Interpret Never Let Me Go

The (De)Formation of Identity in Never Let Me Go: Representing Trauma and Nostalgia

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Eva Pelayo Sañudo holds a PhD in gender and diversity from the University of Oviedo and currently teaches at the University of Cantabria (Spain). Her fields of research are American literature, ethnic, gender and postcolonial studies. Her monography Spatialities in Italian American Women’s Literature: Beyond the Mean Streets (2021) has been awarded several prizes.