Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Layers: Physical and Cultural Constructions of Space in the English-Speaking World, Strasbourg, Fransa, 16 - 17 Ekim 2025, ss.6-7, (Özet Bildiri)
Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant (2015) explores the processes of historical erasure and resurfacing through a postcolonial and memory studies framework. Set in a mythical postArthurian Britain, the novel depicts a landscape where collective memory has been obscured by a mystical fog, symbolizing both political amnesia and the layers of conquest, violence, and cultural assimilation that shape national identity. This paper examines how Ishiguro’s novel engages with the notion of historical layering, particularly in its portrayal of Britain as a contested palimpsest of Saxon and Briton histories. The journey of Axl and Beatrice through the mist-laden countryside reflects the resurfacing of forgotten traumas, both on a personal and collective level. As the fog lifts, suppressed histories re-emerge, raising questions about the ethical implications of remembrance and forgetting in the formation of national narratives. By situating The Buried Giant within postcolonial and geohistorical perspectives, this study argues that Ishiguro reconfigures Britain’s past as an unstable terrain where history is constantly rewritten. The novel’s meditation on memory and landscape ultimately challenges the idea that reconciliation can occur without acknowledging the deep layers of historical violence that continue to shape the present.