日裔英籍作家石黑一雄的早期小說《遠山淡影》和《浮世畫家》均以第二次世界大戰后戰敗的日本為背景。石黑一雄對戰后日本的想象凸顯了以下兩個方面:一是戰后日本社會的創傷和重建,二是戰敗與美軍占領所帶來的日本社會中的價值觀沖突,即日本傳統價值觀被質疑甚至摧毀,自由、民主等信念日占上風。石黑一雄的日本想象,源于其個人體驗,尤其是他對創傷的認識,對傳統的質疑,強烈的理想主義精神和對未來的焦慮,并因此指向與他同時代的人和世界。

The Japanese-born English writer Kazuo Ishiguro’s two early novels A Pale View of Hills and An Artist of the Floating World are all set in the defeated Japan in the wake of WWII. Kazuo Ishiguro’s imagination of Japan is very prominent in the following two aspects: a postwar Japanese society racked with grief but already under reconstruction, and the great conflicts of values in that society, with the traditional values questioned and the new values of freedom and democracy getting the upper hand. Such imagination, is mainly the result of the writer’s personal experience, including his deep understanding of trauma, questioning of tradition, strong idealistic passion, and anxiety about the future.