Hybridity as a new genre of literature : the works of Kazuo Ishiguro

Abstract

Homi K. Bhabha suggests that hybridity bridges more than just cultural, genetic, linguistic and national differences. His theory explores a hybridity that reconciles such ubiquitous peripheral differences as generational, gender, class, societal and even individual differences. Even before the era of imperialism and globalization, such hybridization was present within national and cultural frameworks. The differences were acknowledged, confronted, wrestled with and incorporated into a new entity or phenomenon – whether coherent or incoherent – and made part of a culture, society, morality, etc. This dissertation applies the workings of the hybridization logic to literature, and particularly the in-between spaces in narratology. It explores multiple aspects of the narrative’s liminalities, in character, style and structure, to pinpoint any moments that may engender hybridization in fictional discourse. Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels are replete with fused contradictions and negotiated differences on many levels, extending far beyond any genre differences. This paper seeks to define the concept and workings of ‘hybridity’ in literature through the analysis of Ishiguro’s six novels: Pale View of Hills, An Artist of the Floating World, The Remains of the Day, The Unconsoled, When We Were Orphans and Never Let Me Go. The tenets of Mikhail M. Bakhtin’s dialogism are also employed to unveil multiple connotations or different voices in a discourse, ultimately facilitating the unearthing of hybridity. This dissertation, thus, hones in in particular on the author-narrator dialogic interactions.