This presentation was given as the semester-end presentation on the Unreliable Narrator in 'An Artist of The Floating World' for the paper 107 '20th century Literature 1950 to 2000 ' in the M.A. English Semester 2
2. Introduction
Name: Ghanshyam Katariya
Roll No:07
Paper No: 107
Paper Name: 20th Century Literature 1950 to 2000
Topic: The Unreliable Narrator in ‘An Artist of The Floating World’
Submitted At: Smt. S. B. Gardi. Department of English
Email ID: gkatariya67@gmail.com
3. Table of Content
Author’s introduction
Masuji Ono as Narrator
Conclusion
An Artist of the Floating
World
Some lines from Novel
4. ● Kazuo Ishiguro is a British author who was born in Nagasaki,
Japan on 8th November 1954.
● In 1974, he enrolled in the University of Kent in Canterbury and
attained a degree of Bachelor of Arts with two majors; English
and Philosophy.
● He won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2017,
● "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss
beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".
● His famous works are,
An Artist of the Floating World (1986)
‘The Remains of the Day’ in 1989
The Unconsoled (1995),
When We Were Orphans (2000),
Never Let Me Go (2005),
The Buried Giant (2015)
Kazuo Ishiguro
5. ● The novel was first published in 1986 in UK
in English language.
● It is a historical fictional novel set in post-
World War II Japan and is narrated by
Masuji Ono, an ageing painter, who looks
back on his life and how he has lived it.
● The novel's title is based on the literal
translation of Ukiyo-e, a word referring to
the Japanese art of prints. Therefore, it can
be read as "a printmaker" or "an artist living
in a changing world,"
An Artist of The Floating Worlds
6. Masuji Ono
● An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility
is compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by
Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction.
● Masuji Ono is an unsure and unreliable narrator, and
this being a first person narrative, the reader is
caught up in his uncertainties, in what the author
describes in an interview as the “murkiness” of
someone wading through his memories.(Sarvan)
● In novels and stories featuring unreliable narration,
the other characters’ speech and body language
typically serve as correctives to the narrator’s
distorted perception and interpretation of events.
(Karttunen)
7. Unreliability of Narrator
● Ono’s loss of memory leaves the reader
chasing after elusive significance, and
though Ono uses language evasively, he is
often betrayed and ends deceived, rather
than deceiving. (Sarvan)
● However, since self reassurance is
psychologically necessary for him, his
doubt and confusions conclude with, “I am
certain”, “I am sure”, but the reader
remains uncertain and unsure.(Sarvan)
8. ● Ichiro, taken by his grandfather to see a film about a
monster, firmly kept his eyes closed throughout the
screening; yet, once back home, the boy narrates his
version of the film he has not seen, desire and
imagination creating the lost visual encounter.
Similarly, his grandfather relates incidents, the
significance of which he still has not seen. Add the
latter’s tendency to indirection and deceit, and one
wonders whether, and to what degree, Ono’s
narrative is an instance of recovered or reconstituted
memory.(Sarvan)
25%
75%
9. ● “I am sure I am not mistaken in recalling that Dr Saito,
on that same occasion, made several more references
to my work and career. And before he went on his
way down the hill, I remember his repeating words to
the effect of: "A great honour to have an artist of your
stature in our neighbourhood, Mr Ono." “ (Ishiguro)
● " "Forgive me, but it would appear from what Taro-
san has said that Dr Saito was never so familiar with
Father's career. Of course, he always knew Father as a
neighbour. But it would seem he was unaware that
Father was connected with the art world at all until
last year when the negotiations began." "You"re quite
wrong, Setsuko," I said with a laugh. "Dr Saito and I
have known about each other for many years.”
(Ishiguro)
10. "Precautionary steps"--you remember that,
Setsuko? As you see, I didn't ignore your advice."
"I"m sorry, Father, what advice was this?" "Now
Setsuko, there's no need to be so tactful. I"m quite
prepared now to acknowledge there are certain
aspects to my career I have no cause to be proud of.
Indeed, I acknowledged as much during the
negotiations, just as you suggested." "I'm sorry, I"m
not at all clear what Father is referring to." (Ishiguro)
11. Works Cited
Ishiguro, Kazuo. An Artist of the Floating World. Faber & Faber, 2001. Accessed
12 March 2023.
Karttunen, Laura. “A Sad Monologist: Unreliable Reporting of Dialogue in Kazuo
Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World.” Literary Linguistics, vol. 5, no. 2,
2016, https://journals.linguistik.de/ijll/article/view/59.
Sarvan, C. (1997). Floating Signifiers and An Artist of the Floating World. The
Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 32(1), 93–101.
https://doi.org/10.1177/002198949703200108
