A Behavioural Approach to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels
Behavioural research indicates that humans can seldom be rational decision-makers that maximise their profits while minimising their costs at all times. The current paper proposes an interdisciplinary perspective on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels with regard to his characters’ choices, decisions and action...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Department of English, Bodoland University
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Transcript: An e-Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://thetranscript.in/a-behavioural-approach-to-kazuo-ishiguros-novels/ |
| _version_ | 1797403925443248128 |
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| author | Amalia Călinescu |
| author_facet | Amalia Călinescu |
| author_sort | Amalia Călinescu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Behavioural research indicates that humans can seldom be rational decision-makers that maximise their profits while minimising their costs at all times. The current paper proposes an interdisciplinary perspective on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels with regard to his characters’ choices, decisions and actions. By presenting identity crises as a result of faulty choices and decisions, Ishiguro stresses the importance of heuristics, biases and conditioning in the decision-making process. Like real people, Ishigurian characters are emotional, irrational and prone to error, behaving contrary to the maximisation of their lives. This behavioural pattern comes as everyday normality in both real and fictional environments plagued by uncertainty and unable to provide all the available information on every topic – not even in an unnamed modern city (The Unconsoled) or a dystopian England in the late 1990s (Never Let Me Go), let alone in a post-Arthurian England dominated by magic (The Buried Giant) or during and after the Second World War (A Pale View of Hills; An Artist of the Floating World; The Remains of the Day; When We Were Orphans). As a case study from literature, Ishiguro’s characters prove that the decision-making process cannot be viewed unilaterally, hence the interdisciplinary nature of the current study. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T02:46:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-adb9dbcc106a492faa9d5765b30a71de |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2582-9858 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T02:46:31Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Department of English, Bodoland University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Transcript: An e-Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-adb9dbcc106a492faa9d5765b30a71de2023-12-05T16:48:13ZengDepartment of English, Bodoland UniversityTranscript: An e-Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies2582-98582022-06-0121119https://doi.org/10.53034/Transcript.2022.v02.n01.001A Behavioural Approach to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels Amalia Călinescu 0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7360-8418Cultural and Literary Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania Behavioural research indicates that humans can seldom be rational decision-makers that maximise their profits while minimising their costs at all times. The current paper proposes an interdisciplinary perspective on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels with regard to his characters’ choices, decisions and actions. By presenting identity crises as a result of faulty choices and decisions, Ishiguro stresses the importance of heuristics, biases and conditioning in the decision-making process. Like real people, Ishigurian characters are emotional, irrational and prone to error, behaving contrary to the maximisation of their lives. This behavioural pattern comes as everyday normality in both real and fictional environments plagued by uncertainty and unable to provide all the available information on every topic – not even in an unnamed modern city (The Unconsoled) or a dystopian England in the late 1990s (Never Let Me Go), let alone in a post-Arthurian England dominated by magic (The Buried Giant) or during and after the Second World War (A Pale View of Hills; An Artist of the Floating World; The Remains of the Day; When We Were Orphans). As a case study from literature, Ishiguro’s characters prove that the decision-making process cannot be viewed unilaterally, hence the interdisciplinary nature of the current study.https://thetranscript.in/a-behavioural-approach-to-kazuo-ishiguros-novels/behavioural conceptskazuo ishigurochoices and decisionspsychotherapeutic literaturebehaviour |
| spellingShingle | Amalia Călinescu A Behavioural Approach to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels Transcript: An e-Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies behavioural concepts kazuo ishiguro choices and decisions psychotherapeutic literature behaviour |
| title | A Behavioural Approach to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels |
| title_full | A Behavioural Approach to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels |
| title_fullStr | A Behavioural Approach to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Behavioural Approach to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels |
| title_short | A Behavioural Approach to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels |
| title_sort | behavioural approach to kazuo ishiguro s novels |
| topic | behavioural concepts kazuo ishiguro choices and decisions psychotherapeutic literature behaviour |
| url | https://thetranscript.in/a-behavioural-approach-to-kazuo-ishiguros-novels/ |
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