Kazuo Ishiguro’s Narratives of the “Other”

In his two novels on Japan: A Pale View of Hills and An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro not only examines the impact of war on individual lives but also illustrates how the orient is misunderstood by westerners and how women are frustrated about their repressed lives. Both the orient and women are othered by the western patriarchal context. These narratives of the “other” embody Ishiguro’s attempts to empower the disempowered and to redress the misrepresented image.