細讀石黑一雄的日本題材小說,可以感覺到其作品與日本重塑其戰后形象的努力相吻合,而且由于他站在西方文化和日本文化的邊緣,相對熟悉兩邊文化,深諳有效影響西方讀者對日本形象認知的玄機,其作品重塑日本形象功效顯著。尤其是石黑一雄在2017年獲得諾貝爾文學獎之后,其小說助力日本從戰爭加害者重塑為戰爭受害者形象的作用更加不可小覷。

A perusal of Kazuo Ishiguro’s two early Japanese novels, A Pale View of Hills and An Artist of the Floating World, reveals their correspondence with postwar Japan’s competition for victimhood. Due to his familiarity with both Japanese and western cultures, the novelist has effectively turned Japan from the war perpetrator into a war victim, with the impact of this constructed victimhood rippling further after he won the Nobel Prize in 2017.