A Discourse Analysis of The Remains of the Day by Ishiguro

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Associate Professor, Faculty of Handicrafts, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.

Abstract

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, Japanese-born British novelist has published in 1989 and translated in Persian by Najaf Daryabandary in 1996. The novel is about a six-day trip by James Stevens, the butler of an aristocratic hall in England, in 1956. The research method, discourse analysis, is based on the ideas of Michel Foucault. Discourse refers to a regular set of statements that are hidden in invisible and unconscious structures, behind individual thoughts, theories and everyday words, and imposes its rules on the forms of thought, behavior and speech. In this regard, the concepts of institution, subject and power/knowledge are considered. In this article, it is shown that Steven's subjectivity, as a subject in the butlerism discourse, is formed through the institutions and discourses of aristocracy and butlerism, and the power structures behind the British aristocracy system based on what knowledge defines butlerism discourse and the subject of the butler in such a way that Stevens's behavior and thinking are constructed that he knows the undisputed superiority of the position of the masters and the aristocracy in the confrontation between "master/butler", normal, self-evident and natural. Steven's subjectivity in this discourse has internalized these binaries and rules and discipline related to them and the system of discrimination resulting from them, so that he has found an outlandish perception of his position as a butler. Through the mechanism of this discourse, he has become the bearer of his prison and participated actively in his imprisonmen

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Research in Narrative Literature

Articles in Press, Corrected Proof
Available Online from 19 February 2025

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