Trauma theory as an interpretative framework of Kazuo Ishiguro's novels (original) (raw)

2019, Jezik, književnost, teorija: zbornik radova: književna istraživanja

Abstract

Since the last decade of the twentieth century, the issues pertaining to the phenomenon of trauma, which figure greatly in both historical and psychoanalytic discourses, have been made prominent in literary interpretation as well, especially where it relies on postmodernist theories. Stemming from the ethical turn, trauma theory explores how the traumatic can endanger but also become constitutive of individual and communal identities, how it can illuminate the constructed nature of both, and how its belated, compulsive, and recursive return exposes desire and conflict as sustaining the ego. Jacque Lacan's return to Freud has become a field of theoretical inspiration for trauma theory and its literary implications. The impossible traumatic memory - indicating a missed encounter with the Lacanian Real - cannot be approached directly, but only testified to in a shared struggle. Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub point out that such testimony inevitably constitutes a speech act, one that according to Michael S. Roth makes explicit the poststructuralist notion of representation as mediated and inherently limited in tackling the aporetic sublime, whether it be tied to structural or historical trauma, as differentiated by Dominick LaCapra. Kazuo Ishiguro's elusive, reticent, prominently subject-oriented prose is permeated with the traumatic which conditions the narratives of his protagonists. The discursive methods they employ are structurally disturbed by trauma, while the autobiographical reconfigurations of their memories aim toward an archival wholeness, an ontological consolation. As such homogenizing projects become foiled, the protagonists' modes of dealing with the traumas of their pasts end up exposing the ideological and psychological mechanisms at work in individual and collective identity construction and preservation.

Key takeaways

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  1. Trauma theory effectively interprets Kazuo Ishiguro's novels by revealing individual and collective identity constructions.
  2. Ishiguro's protagonists grapple with trauma, resulting in narrative instability and subjective identity crises.
  3. The interplay of personal desires and societal myths underscores the ethical complexities in Ishiguro's fiction.
  4. Key concepts from Lacanian psychoanalysis inform the analysis of trauma and memory in Ishiguro's narratives.
  5. The hybrid nature of trauma theory offers a unique framework for critically examining contemporary literary discourse.

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