<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This article foregrounds representations of ageing and memory within Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels, particularly <italic>Never Let Me Go</italic> (2005) and, the less critically considered, <italic>The Buried Giant</italic> (2015). While criticism and reviews touch upon themes of ageing, loneliness, and loss of bodily function, scholars are yet to reveal either the centrality of this to Ishiguro’s work or how this might speak to real-life questions surrounding ageing. Few readers of <italic>Never Let Me Go</italic> realise that in writing it Ishiguro’s guiding question was ‘how can I get young people to go through the experience of old people’? The arguments here seek to restore such authorly intentions to prominence.</p><p>Ishiguro is more interested in socio-cultural meanings of ageing than biologically impoverished memories: this article examines the shifting relationships Ishiguro presents between memory and age as regards what happens to the ways in which memories are valued, and how people might be valuable (or not) for their memories. Interdisciplinary with age studies and social gerontology, this article demonstrates how Ishiguro both contributes to, and contends with, socially constructed concepts of ageing. In refocusing Ishiguro criticism onto reminiscence rather than nostalgia, this article aims to put ageing firmly on the agenda of future research.</p></abstract>

This article foregrounds representations of ageing and memory within Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels, particularly Never Let Me Go (2005) and, the less critically considered, The Buried Giant (2015). While criticism and reviews touch upon themes of ageing, loneliness, and loss of bodily function, scholars are yet to reveal either the centrality of this to Ishiguro’s work or how this might speak to real-life questions surrounding ageing. Few readers of Never Let Me Go realise that in writing it Ishiguro’s guiding question was ‘how can I get young people to go through the experience of old people’? The arguments here seek to restore such authorly intentions to prominence.Ishiguro is more interested in socio-cultural meanings of ageing than biologically impoverished memories: this article examines the shifting relationships Ishiguro presents between memory and age as regards what happens to the ways in which memories are valued, and how people might be valuable (or not) for their memories. Interdisciplinary with age studies and social gerontology, this article demonstrates how Ishiguro both contributes to, and contends with, socially constructed concepts of ageing. In refocusing Ishiguro criticism onto reminiscence rather than nostalgia, this article aims to put ageing firmly on the agenda of future research.

“Stop … and Remember”: Memory and Ageing in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels

American, British and Canadian Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

This article foregrounds representations of ageing and memory within Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels, particularly Never Let Me Go (2005) and, the less critically...

“Stop … and Remember”: Memory and Ageing in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels

Published Online: Jan 03, 2019

Page range: 86 - 113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2018-0018

Keywords
memory studies, age studies, ageing, gerontology, reminiscence, identity, old age, narrative

© 2018 ABC Studies, Journal of the Academic Anglophone Society of Romania, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

“Stop … and Remember”: Memory and Ageing in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels

Published Online: Jan 03, 2019

Page range: 86 - 113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2018-0018

Keywordsmemory studies, age studies, ageing, gerontology, reminiscence, identity, old age, narrative

© 2018 ABC Studies, Journal of the Academic Anglophone Society of Romania, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
memory studies, age studies, ageing, gerontology, reminiscence, identity, old age, narrative