Kazuo ishiguro’s postmodern hypertexts: generic reconfigurations in the remains of the day, when we were orphans, and the buried giant

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2020-10-15

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Sönmez Demir, Yağmur

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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.

Subject Keywords

Hronotope, Genre reconfiguration, English national identity, Postmodern hypertextuality

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https://hdl.handle.net/11511/69197

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

Y. Sönmez Demir, “Kazuo ishiguro’s postmodern hypertexts: generic reconfigurations in the remains of the day, when we were orphans, and the buried giant,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2020.