This extensive edited collection is devoted to the work of the 2017 Nobel Literature Laureate, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, featuring contributions from the most established Ishiguro scholars. It contains major new essays on each of his novels, including the first published essay on Klara and the Sun, as well as his short story collection Nocturnes, and his screenplays. Situating Ishiguro's work within current debates regarding modernism, postmodernism and postcolonialism, the essays examine his engagement with the defining concerns of the contemporary novel, including national identity, Britishness, cosmopolitanism, memory, biotechnology, terrorism, Brexit, immigration and populist politics. Discussing Ishiguro both as a British and global author, this book contributes to debates regarding the politics of publishing of ethnic writers, examining how Ishiguro has managed to shape a career in resistance to narrow labelling where many other writers have struggled to achieve long-term recognition.
The Introduction examines Ishiguro's body of work as a whole and Ishiguro's evolving literary reputation in light of his recent personal and commercial success. The book then offers individual essays on each of Ishiguro's novels, his short story collection, his television and film work, as well as his recent journalistic interventions. Each essay extends and updates existing criticism on Ishiguro via engagement with the most up-to-date critical frameworks, while at the same time staying true to each text's most prominent thematic concerns.
With prominent contributors and comprehensive coverage, this will be the definitive volume of Ishiguro scholarship for years to come.
