Memory of Childhood or Memory of History

This study attempts to read Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans as a historical representation of modern subjectivity situated in the early twentieth century, the period in which this modern subjectivity began to be questioned, doubted, and thus disintegrated. In this novel, the main character Christopher Bank, who leads a successful life as a detective in England, tries to find his missing parents by revisiting the International Settlement in Shanghai where he spent his childhood. Having started this mission with a firm belief in fulfilling justice in the world, Christopher gradually becomes disillusioned toward his mission as a detective throughout the story. This disillusionment derives from the unique nature of the International Settlement. The basic notion of the International Settlement lies in its endorsement of the harmonious mingling of inter-nations, and this mingling is enabled by its residents’ faith in universal humanity and rational subjectivity. This faith also serves as a basis of the traditional Western imperialism. But as the story goes on, it comes to be revealed that this faith cannot be detached from the new imperialistic project of imposing national or even racial identity. It is in fact this precarious nature of Western imperialistic enterprises that gives rise to the displaced representation of Christopher’s childhood memory. Given this historical significance of Christopher’s memory, this study further argues that this novel’s representation of distorted memory is a literary analysis of the working of unconsciousness and it also plays a crucial role in debunking the falsity of what modernity fashions itself into. Indeed, Christopher’s memory itself attests to the problematic nature of imperialistic discourse as a historical manifestation of modernity.