Form and content: Re-writing Ishinguro's ‘An Artist of the Floating World’ from new critical lens

Abstract

Ishiguro has created a diverse range of characters, settings, and plots in his literary work, and he has worked in a variety of genres. He has created both female and male central characters with equal success. The role of memory in shaping characters' understanding of themselves has been a recurring theme. Ishiguro is also preoccupied with power and the consequences of authoritarian ideologies. An Artist of the Floating World is a Historical Fiction. It is set in Japan, between 1948 to 1950, after World War II. Masuji Ono is the novel's narrator and protagonist. He is an unreliable narrator, to a certain extent by his own admission, since he often confesses to memory lapses or uncertainty about the events he narrates. The novel assumes mostly a rational and forthright tone. It achieves emotional quality mostly through subtle means and by occasionally contrasting its controlled tone with moments in which the tone very briefly becomes more dramatic. Its mood is similarly calm, pedestrian, and even professional, but when describing the past, it often shifts abruptly. "The floating world" For instance, has a fantastic, fragile mood.