ILN Journal: Indian Literary Narratives

Articles

Vol. 3 No. S1 (2026): Representations of Crisis in Literature

Resonance of Vanished Empire: Cultural Memory and Nostalgic Revision in Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World

Submitted
24 December 2025
Published
2026-05-02

Abstract

     The academic approach to memory studies concentrates on analyzing how societies organize their relationship with the past. It extends beyond individual psychology to examine the structural and cultural forces that determine what is preserved and what is forgotten. This paper investigates how Kazuo Ishiguro’s “An Artist of the Floating World” (1986) constructs and deconstructs cultural memory, demonstrating how nostalgic revisions of imperial Japan both protect and distort the past. Using Jan and Aleida Assmann’s influential framework of cultural memory, the study suggests that Ishiguro’s protagonist, Ono, employs selective recollection and self-deception to reconcile his involvement in a vanished empire with his present identity. The novel considers memory not merely as an accurate historical record but as an active process of cultural meaning-making, where personal recollections become intertwined with collective trauma and the decline of Japanese imperial power. Ishiguro’s approach to memory surpasses simple psychological portrayal; his work exemplifies how literature functions as a space for creating cultural memory, balancing between communicative memory, which refers to lived experience, and cultural memory that exceeds individual awareness. The paper contends that the novel’s fragmented, unreliable narrative mirrors the nature of cultural memory itself, illustrating how nostalgia serves both as a means of healing and as a way of distorting history in post-war Japan. Through textual analysis grounded in Assmann’s memory theory, this research advances understanding of how literary works contribute to shaping national identity and renegotiating historical responsibility.

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