Masuji Ono as an Unreliable Narrator Assignment Paper 107

 An Artist of the Floating World: Masuji Ono as an Unreliable Narrator

Introduction:

Kazuo Ishiguro’s “An Artist of the  Floating World”(1986) is a novel by  British author Kazuo Ishiguro. It is set in post-World War II Japan and is narrated by Masuji Ono, an ageing painter, who looks back on his life and how he has lived it. He notices how his reputation as a painter has faltered since Japan lost the war and the attitude of people has changed towards him and his paintings. The novel ends with the narrator expressing goodwill for the young white-collar workers on the streets at lunchbreak. The novel also deals with the role of people in a rapidly changing political environment and with the assumption and denial of guilt. The author's use of an unreliable narrator is one of the most fascinating literary devices used in storytelling. While there have been unreliable narrators dating back to the work of the Ancient Greek playwright, Aristophanes, the term was coined by Wayne C. Booth in his book, The Rhetoric of Fiction.

What is an Unreliable Narrator:

An unreliable narrator is one that is not to be fully believed. His or her credibility is compromised due to some admission of insanity or an obviously false claim that the reader knows is incorrect, or due to the story revealing information about the narrator that makes the reader question the believability of claims made.

The unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility is compromised (Frey). They can be found in fiction and film, and range from children to mature characters. (Nünning). The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. Wayne C. Booth Writes, "I have called a narrator reliable when he speaks for or acts in accordance with the norms of the work (which is to say the implied author's norms), unreliable when he does not." (Booth)

J. Rabinowitz criticized Booth's definition for relying too much on facts external to the narrative, such as norms and ethics, which must necessarily be tainted by personal opinion. He consequently modified the approach to unreliable narration.

There are unreliable narrators (cf. Booth). An unreliable narrator, however, is not simply a narrator who 'does not tell the truth' – what fictional narrator ever tells the literal truth? Rather an unreliable narrator is one who tells lies, conceals information, and misjudges with respect to the narrative audience – that is, one whose statements are untrue not by the standards of the real world or of the authorial audience but by the standards of his own narrative audience. ... In other words, all fictional narrators are false in that they are imitations. But some are imitations who tell the truth, and some are the people who lie. (Rabinowitz)

The use of the unreliable narrator is also a reminder that any story told from the first-person point of view has limitations. In reality, all humans are unreliable narrators. Whenever a person recalls an experience, the recollection is subjective and might not include all relevant details—either because the details were missed entirely, or were forgotten in the time that passed between the event and the later description of it. Some people forget or omit details as a type of self-preservation. Others do it to avoid negative consequences. Still, others omit details sim. ply because they didn't notice them

Types of unreliable narrators:

In his book, Picaros, Madmen, Naifs, and Clowns: The Unreliable First-Person Narrator, author William Riggan explored the types of first-person unreliable narrators often seen in the literature. He narrowed it down to the following list:

The Pícaro

This is a narrator who is prone to exaggeration and bragging and is unreliable due to his or her tendency for tall tales. Some examples include Moll Flanders in the novel by the same name written by Daniel Defoe, Simplicius Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, and Felix Krull from the unfinished German novel, Confessions of Felix Krull by Thomas Mann.

The Madman

This is a narrator who has a mental disorder resulting in dissociation, schizophrenia or paranoia. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk gave us one of the best examples of this type of unreliable narrator in the discovery that the insomniac narrator and Tyler Durden were one and the same. Some other examples are Franz Kafka's narrators, Barbara Covett in Notes on a Scandal, Charles Kinbote in Pale Fire, and Patrick Bateman in Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho.

The Clown

This is a narrator who toys with the truth and the reader's expectations. Examples of this type of unreliable narrator include Tristram Shandy in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne.

The Naïf

This type of unreliable narrator is a narrator with a limited understanding or point of view. One of the best examples of this is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Other examples of naïves include Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Holden Caulfield, from J. D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, and Jack from Emma Donoghue's novel, Room.

The Liar

This is a narrator who purposefully lies to the audience. John Dowell in Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier is an example of this type of unreliable narrator.

Unreliable Narrator in An Artist of the Floating World:

The Novel “An Artist of the Floating World” is narrated by the protagonist of the novel Masuji Ono. Ishiguro uses a variety of techniques to convey the fallibility of Ono's recollections to the audience, gradually revealing that Ono is an unreliable narrator and undermining the audience's faith in his story. For example, Ono makes frequent digressions into unrelated topics and events during his narration, downplaying and concealing his cruel actions and misleading the reader as to the significance of important topics. When Ono recounts interactions with family members, events are often referred to indirectly, or with incomplete information, disguising the truth of what has occurred. (Wright) Because they are given incomplete and confusing information, it becomes more difficult for the reader to determine the extent of Ono's actions and the responsibility he bears for them. Masuji Ono repeatedly reassesses events from his past throughout the novel, which suggests that he is constantly reconsidering his guilt about his actions and ultimately rethinking both the role of propaganda and the construction of memories. This process of reassessment highlights his status as an unreliable narrator, emphasising his fickle nature. (Foniokava)

The narration reflects the concept that memory is processed through an individual's consciousness, making it subjective to that particular person.

Responsibility

Similar to the theme of the politicisation of art, the novel explores the role of responsibility through the narration of Masuji Ono. There is a conflict between actions and culpability created through Ono's inability to take responsibility for the political aspects of his past work. Ono's deflections of responsibility are evident through his attempt at masking his actions and their subsequent consequences. An Artist of the Floating World makes reference to the liability of leaders after the war and how many of them were not held responsible, a group from which the narrator implicitly disassociates himself. (Sauerberg)

Changing values

Post-World War II Japan was a time of great change and upheaval of traditional values. Japan's defeat in the war created a large divide between individuals and generations. In the novel, this clash of values is represented in the relationship between Masuji Ono and his grandson Ichiro. Ono represents the traditional values of pre-war Japan, while Ichiro represents post-war Japan and the new generation. Major changes explored include the changing attitudes towards the war, family hierarchy, geography of Japan and the increasing prevalence of Western culture. Cultural tension is presented through various scenes between Ichiro and Ono, such as their watching of the Godzilla movie, Ichiro's obsession with cowboys and Popeye and his lack of interest in Japanese heroes.

Women are portrayed throughout this novel from the perspective of Ono and well from the perspective of the changing Japanese society around him. The concept of Japanese masculinity altered after Japan's defeat in the war, and while changes were made to the role of women, women's stereotypes were not changed drastically. Gender relations are explored throughout the novel in the plot strand that treats Noriko's quest for a husband.

Marriage negotiations are a central feature of this novel. The marriage negotiations on behalf of his daughter cause Ono to reflect on his past, facilitating the creation of the story. They further facilitate Ono taking responsibility for his past actions, as well as allowing him to reconsider the changing values of Japan as perhaps being positive. They allow Ono to admit his mistakes, progressing the narrative and acting as a literary device.

Masuji Ono cannot be considered a reliable narrator and there are many such reasons behind it like he always presents events of the past that he is not sure it is the precise truth. For example this quote, 

“It is now already a thing of some fifteen years ago. In those days, when my circumstances seemed to improve with each month, my wife had begun to press me to find a new house. With her usual foresight, she had argued the importance of our having a house in keeping with our status — not out of vanity, but for the sake of our children's marriage prospects. I saw the sense in this, but since Setsuko, our eldest, was still only fourteen or fifteen, I did not go about the matter with any urgency. Nevertheless, for a year or so, whenever I heard of a suitable house for sale, I would remember to make enquiries.”(Ishiguro)

Conclusion:

In the novel “An Artist of the Floating World” the unreliability lies in the protagonist himself, making the novel unreliable. Masuji Ono is unreliable because of many reasons one of them being ‘Old Age’ and memory. When someone of old age is narrating something it is hard to believe them because of their capacity to remember things in other words memory, It is a psychological trait that our IQ decreases as we get older. Apart from memory his pride as an artist and an individual also plays a vital role.

Works Cited

Booth, Wayne C. “The rhetoric of fiction : Booth, Wayne C : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, 17 June 2010, https://archive.org/details/rhetoricoffictio00boot. Accessed 9 May 2022.

Foniokava, Zuzana. “The SelecTive NarraTor: coNSTrucTioN of The PaST iN Kazuo iShiguro'S An Artist of the floAting World.” Digital Library of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, 2007, https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/bitstream/handle/11222.digilib/104435/1_BrnoStudiesEnglish_33-2007-1_12.pdf. Accessed 9 May 2022.

Frey, James N. How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II: Advanced Techniques For Dramatic Storytelling. St. Martin's Publishing Group, 1994.

Ishiguro, Kazuo. “An Artist of the Floating World.” Z Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012, https://1lib.in/book/18324959/3d3599. Accessed 9 May 2022.

Nünning, Vera, editor. Unreliable Narration and Trustworthiness: Intermedial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. De Gruyter, 2015. Accessed 9 May 2022.

Rabinowitz, Peter J.: Truth in Fiction: A Reexamination of Audiences. In: Critical Inquiry. Nr. 1, 1977, S. 121–141.

Riggan, William. Pícaros, madmen, naïfs, and clowns : the unreliable first-person narrator. University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. Accessed 9 May 2022.

Sauerberg, Lars Ole. “EURAMERICA Vol.” EURAMERICA Vol, 2006, https://www.ea.sinica.edu.tw/eu_file/12015024554.pdf. Accessed 9 May 2022.

Wright, Timothy. “"No Homelike Place: The Lesson of History in Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World."” YouTube, 2014, https://muse.jhu.edu/view_citations?type=article&id=545854. Accessed 9 May 2022.