Causes and Implications of Etsuko’s Pidgin Identity in A Pale View of Hills
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5958/2347-6869.2020.00015.1Keywords:
displacement, pidgin identity, memory and recollection, trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, gender inequalities, the generation gap, migration, Shadow, attachment theory, dream psychoanalysis, A Pale View of Hills, Kazuo IshiguroAbstract
The paper proposes a theoretical analysis of A Pale View of Hills, using a psycho-literary approach to the themes of Japaneseness-Englishness, displacement, and the hybrid individual as they emerge from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel. Etsuko’s pidgin identity results from the main character’s existential migration, which, in turn, stems from her experiencing and witnessing gender inequality, domestic abuse, and war trauma along with the gaping rift between generations. In line with Freud and Jung’s oneiric theories, the paper investigates Etsuko’s post-traumatic stress disorder in order to explain why the protagonist fails to face the suicide of her elder daughter, Keiko, whose avoidant-insecure behaviour might have worsened after her forced uprooting and immigration to England. Although the middle-aged expatriate Etsuko is willing to find new motivation for living, based on the unusual habit of the subconscious to get used to repetitive traumas, her pidgin identity, impossible to recalibrate, may affect her ability to heal.
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