Screening Voice and Telling Images: Transmission as Sketching a Portrait of the Artist in Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World
In his second novel, An Artist of the Floating World (1986), Kazuo Ishiguro explores the relationship between master and pupil, in the form of a first-person account addressed to an anonymous other. By a tacit contract of “willing suspension of disbelief”, the reader is invited to embark on a journe...
Αποθηκεύτηκε σε:
| Τόπος έκδοσης: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/polysemes, |
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| Κύριος συγγραφέας: | |
| Μορφή: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Γλώσσα: | Anglais |
| Έκδοση: |
Polysèmes
2025
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| Θέματα: | |
| Διαθέσιμο Online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Περίληψη: | In his second novel, An Artist of the Floating World (1986), Kazuo Ishiguro explores the relationship between master and pupil, in the form of a first-person account addressed to an anonymous other. By a tacit contract of “willing suspension of disbelief”, the reader is invited to embark on a journey along an uncharted path, as a formerly famous painter attempts to come to terms with the shadows that his past self has cast onto the present, amid the dramatic changes that shook Japanese society in the wake of the Second World War. Ono’s career as an artist evolved following the teachings of his successive masters until his own popularity was established, turning him into a master to numerous young artists who revered his works and his vision. Yet, beside the admiration of budding artists another source of prestige came from the Japanese authorities recognizing in him a true proponent of the imperial, patriotic cause to be defended by glorifying engagement in the war. He contributed to the wartime propaganda and censorship through his work and as a member of the Cultural Committee of the Interior Department. The novel spans the post-war period, from October 1948 to June 1950, when the artist is confronted with mounting pressure from some former pupils and the younger generation who view him as a traitor and hold him to account for his past choices, at a time when he needs most to uphold his reputation in view of the marriage negotiations of his second daughter. This article focuses on the interplay between narrative and visual effects in deconstructing the self-portrait of the artist by debunking the painter’s strategies to ward off the call for a soul-searching investigation. Ishiguro delves into the complex forces that combine to turn power into abuse, legacy into manipulation, in a confrontation between generations around the course of action taken. A rigidly codified society brings pressure to bear on the artist’s creativity, while he struggles to forge a new vision, one that may reconcile aesthetics and political engagement. That he should fail to do so is an acknowledgement, early in the novelist’s career, of the necessary limits to our aspirations and of the narrow path we tread in negotiating with others and with ourselves. Sketching then becomes the appropriate mode of leaving a form of legacy. |
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