Type
Text
Type
Thesis
Advisor
Marshik, Celia , Olster, Stacey
Date
2011-12-01
Keywords
Modern literature--Literature--Philosophy | Authenticity, Identity, Jean-Paul Sartre, Kazuo Ishiguro, Martin Heidegger, Never Let Me Go
Department
Department of English
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/71344
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
This essay explores the concept of authenticity in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go in relation to the ontologies presented in Martin Heidegger's Being and Time and Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness. Through a comparison of the three central characters, I argue that Kathy H. reveals an image of authentic living that reflects Heidegger's and Sartre's philosophies, yet also transcends them. Ishiguro, I argue, reconceives the exigencies of authentic self-creation by creating a protagonist who is able to establish her own existential projects, recognize the relationship between the factical and transcendental aspects of her identity, and accept her death as her own-most possibility despite the limiting circumstances of her environment. I argue that Ishiguro reveals authenticity as a viable possibility by creating a protagonist who is able to be both authentic and ethical. | 47 pages
Recommended Citation
McKelvey, Stacy Marie, "A Figura of Authenticity: Redefining Authentic Living in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me" (2011). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 550.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/550