Ryder''s "Stream of Unconsciousness" : A Psychoanalytic Reading of Ishiguro''s The Unconsoled

• Main Authors: Hsing-Ching Tsai, 蔡幸靜
• Other Authors: Chung-Hsuan Tung
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/77363571011679310734

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 外國語文學系所 === 97 === This thesis aims to explore the alienated individual in Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled by applying psychoanalytical theories. The Unconsoled is Ishiguro’s surrealist work: It uses the “stream of unconsciousness” narrative mode and “the language of dream” to render the theme of the novel: the fragility of the human spirit, the alienation of the individual, and the emptiness of modern society. The protagonist’s “stream of unconsciousness” runs throughout the novel. His four-day-trip is like four musical movements. Ishiguro systemically contrives an overflow of Ryder’s mentality and takes a further step to disclose Ryder’s expectation, perceptions, and feelings about his past, present and future. Regarding The Unconsoled as a dream text is to mix the Modernist’s stream of consciousness with Sigmund Freud’s theory of the unconscious. Ryder’s dream comes from his repressed desire or his lack of satisfaction. In his unconscious stream we can find an individual alienated in a modern society, his soul lost and uconsoled. Employing Freud’s theory of the unconscious and his interpretation of dreams, we find we can explain the illogical plot details and disclose Ryder’s desire and anxiety. We find the unconscious kindly warps, conceals, and softens the meanings of one’s dreams and evades shocks, disturbances and censorship by condensation or displacement. Ryder indeed fulfills his wish by dreaming. He has passed Lacan’s mirror stage and has begun to identify himself with the image he sees in the “mirror” or the world: In truth, his desire is constantly substituted by an “object petit a,” which is now replaced by music. But such a replacement is just an empty replacement. After all, he as well as all others (who are no other than his projections) cannot get any consolation. Even music can only serve as their common temporary goal or imagined way of consolation.