Module B – Essay (Ishiguro)

Resource Description

“Narrative perspective is central to An Artist of the Floating World. To what extent does
this statement reflect your understanding of the novel? Make close reference to the novel
in your response.”

Ishiguro’s An Artist of The Floating World uses an unreliable narrative perspective to
communicate the central idea of the text that truth should be questioned. He presents the
narrator Masuji Ono as unsure of the memories he recollects, despite representing them
with authority and detail, highlighting how individual perspectives shape meaning and
bringing attention to the constructed nature of truths. In this way, he demonstrates how
this unreliability can create a narrow perspective and explores the consequences this can
have, drawing attention to the problems with blindly subscribing to a single ideological truth
or perspective and encouraging readers to question the societally endorsed codes they are
exposed to.