Hello everyone, this is the blog of our group task given by our professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir, in which we have to give a basic and brief introduction of the novel "An Artist of the Floating World" by Kazuo Ishiguro. This blog is prepared by Me and Khushbu both.
About Novelist
Kazuo Ishiguro, in full Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, (born November 8, 1954, Nagasaki, Japan), Japanese-born British novelist known for his lyrical tales of regret fused with subtle optimism. In 2017 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his works that “uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.”
The novel was published in 1986. Ishiguro is a prolific and well-known novelist, famous for his books "The Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go". He has won the Man Booker Prize and won the Nobel Prize in 2017, and was knighted in 2019. An Artist of the Floating World, his second novel, is an example of his earlier writing, and was well-received, earning a Whitbread Award. This novel is particularly well-known for its use of an unreliable narrator, Masuji Ono. It tells the story of Ono, a retired Japanese artist trying to come to terms with changes in his country after the Second World War. Ishiguro himself was born in Japan, but emigrated to the United Kingdom as a child and did not return to Japan until after publishing An Artist of the Floating World. He has said that, by writing about places with which he is unfamiliar, such as post-war Japan in this novel, he is able to write more imaginatively.
∆NOTABLE WORKS :-
“An Artist of the Floating World”
“The White Countess”
“When We Were Orphans”
“A Pale View of Hills”
Title of the novel
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," given both Ono's limited understanding and the dramatic changes his world, Japan in the first half of the twentieth century, has undergone in his lifetime.
The title also refers to an artistic genre. Ono's master is especially interested in depicting scenes from the pleasure district adjacent to the villa in which he and his students live. Ono mentions the ephemeral nature of the floating world that could be experienced during each night. His master experiments with innovative softer Western-style painting techniques, rejecting the hard black outlining that was considered more traditional. Under the influence of right-wing political ideas about tradition, Ono becomes estranged from his master and forges his own career. He feels gleeful when his master's paintings fell into disfavour during a return to the use of more traditional bold lines in the paintings used for nationalistic posters.
Brief summary of the novel
Though the book dwells on events from Ono's childhood and early adulthood, it is held together by a linear thread taking place in the novel's present, the late 1940s and early 1950s. This thread describes Ono's attempt to arrange a marriage for his younger daughter, Noriko. He believes that his reputation is in shambles because of his early nationalistic paintings, and he grieves for the family members lost in the war. Over the course of the novel, Ono's narration flashes between past and present, and he often calls his own reliability into question by interrogating the accuracy of his own memories. The novel deals with themes including war, solitude, aging and death, and grief. Stylistically, it is rather spare and direct, though its structure calls that directness into question with poignant omissions. The book is split into four sections, which are titled using time markers:
October 1948,
April 1949,
November 1949,
June 1950.
Characters
Masuji Ono :-
Ono is the novel’s protagonist and narrator. He is, at the time of the narration, an aging retired artist in post-war Japan.
Setsuko :-
Setsuko is Ono’s older daughter. By the time the novel begins, she is already married and living in another city with her husband and son.
Noriko :-
Noriko is Ono’s younger daughter. The first half of the novel revolves largely around the process of her engagement. Noriko is more spontaneous and bold than her sister, and she often pokes fun at their morose father.
Ichiro :-
Ichiro is Setsuko’s young son and Matsuji’s grandson. He is more or less a typical energetic child, and he provides comic relief over the course of the novel, though he appears increasingly worried about his grandfather’s mental state.
Chishu Matsuda :-
We first encounter Matsuda as an elderly man, when Ono goes to visit him over the course of Noriko’s marriage negotiations.
Seiji Moriyama :-
Often referred to simply as Mori-San, Moriyama was Ono’s teacher, mentor, and sponsor during the early years of his artistic career.
The Tortoise :-
The “tortoise” is less of a three-dimensional character and more of a symbol, meant to serve as a foil to Ono. His real name is Yasunari Nakahara, but Ono refers to him almost solely by his nickname.
Shintaro :-
Shintaro is a former student of Ono's, and the two of them remain friends.
Suichi :-
Suichi is Setsuko's husband, making him Ono's first son-in-law. Ono frequently invokes him even though he appears rarely in the novel.
Kuroda :-
Ono's former favorite student, Kuroda remains a mysterious offscreen figure for most of the novel.
Several themes of the novel
Role of Art and the Artist
Intergenerational Conflict
Imperialism and Sovereignty
Aging
Grief
Pedagogy
Marriage
Symbols
These are the symbols used in the novel.
Bridge of Hesitation
Fire
Samurai
Reception Room
Sake
Cowboys
So we can say that An Artist of the Floating World discusses several themes through the memories of the narrator, Masuji Ono. The analysis of these themes is facilitated through their transcendence of time, allowing the audience's rumination on Ono's experiences, permitting them to judge the narrative objectively.
Thank you.
