Unmasking The Psyche: Freudian Layers In Kazuo Ishiguro’s Fiction

Abstract

Kazuo Ishiguro, a master of narrative subtlety, invites readers into intricate psychological landscapes through his first-person narratives. Drawing inspiration from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories, this study explores Ishiguro’s works, including A Pale View of Hills, The Remains of the Day, The Unconsoled, When We Were Orphans, and Never Let Me Go. Within these narratives, we encounter distorted perspectives, transference, and dream-like techniques, each revealing the complexities of identity, trauma, and the enigma of unreliable narrators. Ishiguro’s choice of first-person narration immerses readers in the minds of his characters, where boundaries between reality and memory blur. Freudian threads weave through the prose, as characters struggle with desires, fears, and forgotten traumas. The human psyche becomes a labyrinth, one that Ishiguro navigates with poetic precision. In The Remains of the Day, Stevens’ loyalty to duty blinds him to personal desires, leaving readers to decipher hidden motivations. In Never Let Me Go, the students’ connection to Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic school becomes symbolic, revealing their shared humanity. Ishiguro’s novels serve as rich terrain for exploring the human psyche. His prose, like a therapist’s couch, invites readers to confront their own hidden desires and memories. Through Freudian lenses, the readers get to unravel the enigma of selfhood, one unreliable narrator at a time.