333- ] English Literature - Kazuo Ishiguro

33- ] English Literature

Kazuo Ishiguro

Nobel Prize in Literature

In 2017, Ishiguro was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature with the motivation "in novels of great emotional force, [he] has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world". Ishiguro was seen as a surprise choice by many observers, but the choice was generally well received. "The Swedish Academy has made some dubious – and last year attention-seeking – decisions in recent years, but this year its 18 voters have got it right", John Mullan, professor of English at University College London, wrote in The Guardian, "It is because he writes for all times, using such carefully controlled means, rigorous yet utterly original, that Ishiguro is such a worthy winner."

Salman Rushdie said “Many congratulations to my old friend Ish, whose work I’ve loved and admired ever since I first read A Pale View of Hills". In response to receiving the award, Ishiguro stated:

It's a magnificent honour, mainly because it means that I'm in the footsteps of the greatest authors that have lived, so that's a terrific commendation. The world is in a very uncertain moment and I would hope all the Nobel Prizes would be a force for something positive in the world as it is at the moment. I'll be deeply moved if I could in some way be part of some sort of climate this year in contributing to some sort of positive atmosphere at a very uncertain time.

At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 2017, Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, compared his writing to 19th century writers such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot mixed with influences from Franz Kafka, and said:

Ishiguro too is an innovator, always taking risks. With every new book he investigates a new genre-mix, with elements of the detective story, science fiction, myth ... The window of the novel has always been wide. Ishiguro has widened it even more."

2021–present: Klara and the Sun and Living

Ishiguro's eighth novel, Klara and the Sun, was published by Faber and Faber on 2 March 2021. Rumaan Alam of The New Republic wrote it is "more simple than it seems, less novel than parable." It was longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. In this novel, narrated from the perspective of an "Artificial Friend" named Klara, he discusses subjects such as the dangers of technological advancement, the future of our world, and the meaning of being human that he also broached in his earlier books.

Ishiguro adapted the screenplay for the 2022 British film Living, directed by Oliver Hermanus and starring Bill Nighy, from the 1952 Japanese film Ikiru directed by Akira Kurosawa. In 2023, Living was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.

Musical work

Ishiguro has co-written several songs for the jazz singer Stacey Kent with Kent's husband, saxophonist Jim Tomlinson. Ishiguro contributed lyrics to Kent's 2007 Grammy-nominated album Breakfast on the Morning Tram,[39] including its title track, her 2011 album, Dreamer in Concert, her 2013 album The Changing Lights, and her 2017 album, I Know I Dream. Ishiguro also wrote the liner notes to Kent's 2002 album In Love Again. Ishiguro first met Kent after he chose her recording of "They Can't Take That Away from Me" as one of his Desert Island Discs in 2002 and Kent subsequently asked him to write for her.

Ishiguro has said of his lyric writing that "with an intimate, confiding, first-person song, the meaning must not be self-sufficient on the page. It has to be oblique, sometimes you have to read between the lines" and that this realisation has had an "enormous influence" on his fiction writing.

In March 2024, Faber & Faber published Ishiguro's book The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain: Lyrics for Stacey Kent, a collection of 16 of his lyrics for Kent, with illustrations by Italian-French artist Bianca Bagnarelli.

Influences

Ishiguro counts Dostoyevsky and Proust among his influences. His works have also been compared to Salman Rushdie, Jane Austen, and Henry James, though Ishiguro himself rejects these comparisons. When asked who his favourite novelist is, he says "Charlotte Brontë's recently edged out Dostoevsky ... I owe my career, and a lot else besides, to Jane Eyre and Villette."

Personal life

Ishiguro has been married to Lorna MacDougall, a social worker, since 1986. They met at the West London Cyreneans homelessness charity in Notting Hill, where Ishiguro was working as a residential resettlement worker. The couple live in Golders Green, North London. Their daughter Naomi Ishiguro is also an author, and has published two books, including the short story collection Escape Routes.

He describes himself as a "serious cinephile" and "great admirer of Bob Dylan". On Desert Island Discs, he chose Dylan's "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" as his favourite song. His book choice was the Collected Short Stories of Anton Chekhov.

Ishiguro has criticized Donald Trump, stating: "In the post-truth Trump era, there’s this relentless attack on accredited news media. It’s not just Trump: it’s a general atmosphere that whatever the evidence, if you don’t like it, you can just claim some alternative emotional truth for yourself. The whole status of what might be true has got very blurred lately." He is also critical of the rise of artificial intelligence, claiming that it "will become very good at manipulating emotions. I think we’re on the verge of that. At the moment we’re just thinking of AI crunching data or something. But very soon, AI will be able to figure out how you create certain kinds of emotions in people – anger, sadness, laughter.”

Honours and awards

National or state honours

1995: ribbon bar Appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature

1998: ribbon bar Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government

2018: ribbon bar Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd Class, Gold and Silver Star by the Japanese government

2018: ribbon bar Appointed Knight Bachelor for services to literature

2024: ribbon bar Appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature

Literary awards

1982: Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for A Pale View of Hills

1986: Whitbread Prize for An Artist of the Floating World

1989: Booker Prize for The Remains of the Day

1989: Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

2017: Nobel Prize in Literature

2017: American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award

2019: Bodley Medal

Except for A Pale View of Hills and The Buried Giant, all of Ishiguro's novels and his short story collection have been shortlisted for major awards Most significantly, An Artist of the Floating World, When We Were Orphans, and Never Let Me Go were all short-listed for the Booker Prize (as was The Remains of the Day, which won it). A leaked account of a judging committee's meeting revealed that the committee found itself deciding between Never Let Me Go and John Banville's The Sea before awarding the prize to the latter.

Other distinctions

1983: Published in the Granta Best Young British Novelists issue

1993: Published in the Granta Best Young British Novelists issue

2005: Never Let Me Go named on Time magazine's list of the 100 greatest English language novels since the magazine's formation in 1923.

2008: The Times ranked Ishiguro 32nd on their list of "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945".

2018: Ishiguro was awarded a Knighthood for Services to Literature

2023: Living was nominated for the 2023 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. With the nomination, Ishiguro became the 6th Nobel Prize recipient to earn an Academy Award nomination. Only 2 individuals, George Bernard Shaw and Bob Dylan have won both. Ishiguro was also nominated for the 2022 BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film.

Works

Novels

A Pale View of Hills (1982)

An Artist of the Floating World (1986)

The Remains of the Day (1989)

The Unconsoled (1995)

When We Were Orphans (2000)

Never Let Me Go (2005)

The Buried Giant (2015)

Klara and the Sun (2021)

Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger (2027)

Short-story collections

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009)

Screenplays

A Profile of Arthur J. Mason (television film for Channel 4 (1984)

The Gourmet (television film for Channel 4) (1987)

The Saddest Music in the World (2003)

The White Countess (2005)

Living (2022)

Short fiction

"A Strange and Sometimes Sadness", "Waiting for J" and "Getting Poisoned" (in Introduction 7: Stories by New Writers, 1981)

"A Family Supper" (in Firebird 2: Writing Today, 1983)

"Summer After the War" (in Granta 7, 1983)

"October 1948" (in Granta 17, 1985)

"A Village After Dark" (in The New Yorker, May 21, 2001)

Lyrics

"The Ice Hotel"; "I Wish I Could Go Travelling Again"; "Breakfast on the Morning Tram", and "So Romantic"; Jim Tomlinson / Kazuo Ishiguro, on Stacey Kent's 2007 Grammy-nominated album, Breakfast on the Morning Tram.

"Postcard Lovers"; Tomlinson / Ishiguro, on Kent's album Dreamer in Concert, (2010).

"The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain"; "Waiter, Oh Waiter", and "The Changing Lights"; Tomlinson / Ishiguro, on Kent's album The Changing Lights (2013).

"Bullet Train"; "The Changing Lights", and "The Ice Hotel"; Tomlinson / Ishiguro, on Kent's album I Know I Dream: The Orchestral Sessions (2017).

"The Ice Hotel"; Tomlinson / Ishiguro – Quatuor Ébène, featuring Stacey Kent, on the album Brazil (2013).

"I Wish I Could Go Travelling Again" (Jim Tomlinson / Kazuo Ishiguro) on Kent's album Songs From Other Places (2021).

"Craigie Burn", (Jim Tomlinson / Kazuo Ishiguro) on Kent's album Songs From Other Places (2021).

'Postcard Lovers" on Kent's album Summer Me, Winter Me (2023).

The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain: Lyrics for Stacey Kent, a collection of 16 of his lyrics for Kent, with illustrations by Italian-French artist, Bianca Bagnarelli.

Adaptations

The Remains of the Day (1993 film)

The Remains of the Day (2010 musical), Union Theatre, London

Never Let Me Go (2010 film)

Never Let Me Go (2016 TV miniseries)

An Artist of the Floating World (2019 TV movie)

A Pale View of Hills (2025 film)

Klara and the Sun (upcoming film)

See also

List of Academy Award winners and nominees from Great Britain