Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Kazuo Ishiguro in the World
- Part II Literature, Music, and Film
- 6 The Ishiguro Archive
- 7 The Unconsoled of The Unconsoled
- 8 ‘A More Sophisticated Imitation’
- 9 Ishiguro and Genre Fiction
- 10 Ishiguro’s TV and Film Scripts
- 11 ‘I’m a Songwriter at Heart, Even When I’m Writing Novels’
- Part III Ethics, Affect, Agency, and Memory
- Guide to Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
11 - ‘I’m a Songwriter at Heart, Even When I’m Writing Novels’
Ishiguro and Music
from Part II - Literature, Music, and Film
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 March 2023
- The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Kazuo Ishiguro in the World
- Part II Literature, Music, and Film
- 6 The Ishiguro Archive
- 7 The Unconsoled of The Unconsoled
- 8 ‘A More Sophisticated Imitation’
- 9 Ishiguro and Genre Fiction
- 10 Ishiguro’s TV and Film Scripts
- 11 ‘I’m a Songwriter at Heart, Even When I’m Writing Novels’
- Part III Ethics, Affect, Agency, and Memory
- Guide to Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Summary
Asked to account for the main influences on his life as a writer, Ishiguro has turned consistently to one idea in particular: that he believes himself to be ‘a songwriter at heart, even when ... writing novels’. His early years as an aspiring musician left an indelible mark, one that is evident across his work: in the musical variations of the stories in Nocturnes, the character of the pianist-protagonist of The Unconsoled, and the insistent motif of the titular pop song in Never Let Me Go, along with many other musical references, allusions, and effects. This chapter seeks to understand something of the quality of Ishiguro’s literary music. It focuses in particular on the fascinating ways in which the most powerfully perceptive and affecting musical moments in the writing are those in which music is simultaneously evoked and kept somehow at a distance.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro , pp. 170 - 184Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023