Functions of Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s the Remains of the Day

Abstract

This article seeks to shed light on the different functions of memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day. Ishiguro dilates on the dialectic of memory and forgetfulness. The protagonist, Stevens the butler, keeps continuously resorting to memory for different purposes. Very much obsessed with the past, he pursues his physical and emotional journeys into past occurrences, talks, geographical spaces, values, and stories with a great sense of heartbreak, remorsefulness and distress at times and of satisfaction, pride and admiration at others. Memory as a recurrent theme in the novel serves as a scaffold upon which Stevens relies to communicate his life experiences, views, and attitudes. Thus, this humble work is an attempt to delineate the roles and uses of memory in the fabrics of The Remains of the Day.

Keywords: memory, forgetfulness, functions, referent bin, factual, emotive, and journey