This paper describes Kazui Ishiguro's Detective Christopher Banks and compares him to Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.
Crime fiction is one of the most successful, extensive and international genres of the late twentieth and the early twenty-first century. Detective fiction is very versatile, consisting of the whodunit, thriller, private eye and hard-boiled, just to name a few subgenres. In a detective story, the reader expects a crime as well as doubt about motive, means and perpetrator, provided with a fair trail of clues to investigate and solve the crime.
Nineteenth-century detective fiction shed a light on the British Empire in a destabilising whilst at the same time reassuring way for national readers. England’s aggressive authority and force were considered a frequent method of maintaining social control and were therefore often addressed by late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century writers. Detective stories were able to turn such obsolete aggression into a more contemporary, benign authority by offering detection as a possibility to avoid despotic representations of government authority.
Modern British detective fiction tends to include transcultural perspectives. Today, writers use a variety of topics, sometimes even combined with ancient myths or tales in order to attract more readers at home and abroad. The British author Elly Griffiths, for example, set the plot of her novel Smoke and Mirrors in Brighton in 1951, where the bodies of two missing children, dubbed by the newspapers as ‘Hansel and Gretel’, were found, giving the story a fairy-tale touch.
The Nobel Prize winning writer Kazuo Ishiguro also went back in time for his novel "When We Were Orphans". The author might not be the first coming to mind when thinking about detective fiction. In his novels, Ishiguro explores the topic of cultural identity.
The novel is full of allusions to Sherlock Holmes. Small details and objects remind the reader of the iconic investigator and even characters in the book compare Holmes and Banks, who is impressed by Doyle’s mysteries. As Barry Lewis claims, Ishiguro’s protagonist may be investigating his past life “with Holmes-like meticulousness”. Nevertheless, When We Were Orphans does not describe a detective as depicted in Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Stories. In Ishiguro’s novel, the structure of the story, the detective’s associates and the detective’s character are presented differently and not in a Holmesian way.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. History and Transculturality of Detective Fiction
3. A Comparison of When We Were Orphans with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Stories
3.1 Story Structure and Methodology of Investigation
3.2 Supporting Characters
3.3 Character Traits of the Protagonists
4. Conclusion
5. Works cited
Objectives and Research Themes
This work explores the intersection of classic detective tropes and postcolonial narratives by analyzing Kazuo Ishiguro's novel "When We Were Orphans" in direct comparison to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories to determine its classification within the genre.
- Analysis of the historical development and transcultural nature of detective fiction.
- Comparative examination of narrative structures and investigatory methodologies.
- Evaluation of the role and function of supporting characters in crime fiction.
- Assessment of the protagonist as an "anti-detective" through character traits and self-doubt.
- Discussion of postcolonial themes and the subversion of the classic "whodunit" logic.
Excerpt from the Book
3.1 Story Structure and Methodology of Investigation
The first difference between Ishiguro’s and Doyle’s narratives is the structure. Doyle’s stories all follow the Holmesian structure. They often start at 221B Baker Street, where a client, a letter or a police officer present introduces the crime. Then, Holmes investigates the crime scene and collects clues and presents his conclusions. Further investigations, including the interrogations of suspects and witnesses, lead to Holmes’ plan to catch the culprit and eventually to his or her exposure, resulting in the punishment.
Doyle’s The Man with the Twisted Lip and The Adventure of the Boscombe Valley Mystery are examples for a crime’s early introduction. In When We Were Orphans, although it becomes clear to the reader that a tragic incident happened in the Banks’ past, the story’s mystery is introduced with delay. Colonel Chamberlain, when meeting Banks, is the first character to indicate a devastating event in the past:
Considering the circumstances, I thought you were extremely brave, my boy […] My poor lad. First your father. Now your mother. Must feel like the whole world’s collapsed around your ears. But we’ll go to England tomorrow, the two of us. Your aunt’s waiting for you there. So be brave. You’ll soon pick up the pieces again. […] I’m sure the authorities are doing everything possible. […] Then once your parents are found, they can send for you (Ishiguro 28-31).
Based on Colonel Chamberlain’s calming words, the reader may conclude that the protagonist moved in with his aunt at a young age after his parents’ disappearance. Banks, stating that the very best detectives are looking for his parents (31), confirms the reader’s conclusion. Only chapters later, during a flashback, does the reader learn that the protagonist’s father was the first to disappear. One day, he did not arrive at the office (122) and the days following his disappearance, young Christopher and Akira, a childhood friend, started playing out detective scenarios where they rescued Christopher’s father (127). In the beginning of When We Were Orphans, the crime is hidden, not more than hinted at and its introduction is stretched nearly to the denouement chapter, whereas in the Sherlock Holmes Stories, it is revealed on the first pages.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter provides an overview of the development of crime fiction and introduces Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel as a narrative that explores cultural identity through the lens of a detective story.
2. History and Transculturality of Detective Fiction: This chapter traces the origins of crime fiction from the 19th century through the "Golden Age," highlighting how the genre absorbed transcultural influences and colonial anxieties.
3. A Comparison of When We Were Orphans with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Stories: This chapter provides a comparative analysis of the narrative structures, supporting characters, and protagonist traits, showing how Ishiguro deviates from the traditional Holmesian model.
3.1 Story Structure and Methodology of Investigation: This section details how Ishiguro uses delayed revelation and a lack of traditional crime scene investigation to subvert the established Holmesian narrative structure.
3.2 Supporting Characters: This section examines the absence of a "Watson-like" figure in Ishiguro’s work, contrasting the reliable chronicler of Doyle’s stories with the solitary and unreliable nature of Christopher Banks.
3.3 Character Traits of the Protagonists: This section analyzes the fundamental differences between the analytical, self-confident Sherlock Holmes and the self-doubting, "Hamletian" detective Christopher Banks.
4. Conclusion: This chapter synthesizes the findings, arguing that "When We Were Orphans" functions as an "anti-detective" novel that recontextualizes classic genre tropes within a surreal and traumatized perspective.
5. Works cited: This section lists the primary and secondary literature utilized for the research and analysis.
Keywords
Detective fiction, Kazuo Ishiguro, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, When We Were Orphans, Whodunit, Postcolonialism, Anti-detective, Narratology, Literary criticism, Narrative structure, Cultural identity, Transculturality, Crime fiction, Character analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this academic work?
The work examines the generic classification of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel "When We Were Orphans" by comparing it to the classical detective fiction established by Arthur Conan Doyle.
What are the central themes discussed in the analysis?
The study centers on the evolution of detective fiction, the subversion of genre conventions, the impact of postcolonial contexts on literature, and the psychological reliability of the narrator.
What is the core research question or objective?
The objective is to determine whether Ishiguro’s novel fits within the conventional crime fiction genre or if it functions as an "anti-detective" narrative due to its departure from established tropes.
Which scientific methods are applied in this paper?
The paper utilizes a comparative literary analysis, focusing on structural narrative comparison, character studies, and the synthesis of existing scholarly perspectives on postcolonial crime fiction.
What content is covered in the main body of the work?
The main body investigates the history of the genre, performs a detailed comparison of narrative structures, analyzes the lack of traditional investigative steps and supporting characters, and discusses the diverging character traits of Holmes and Banks.
Which keywords best describe this academic publication?
Key terms include Detective Fiction, Postcolonialism, Anti-detective, Narrative Structure, and Literary Criticism.
Why does the author consider Christopher Banks an "anti-detective"?
Unlike Sherlock Holmes, who resolves crimes through intellect and evidence, Banks is characterized by self-doubt, trauma, and a failure to solve the central mystery, ultimately functioning more as an unreliable narrator than an effective investigator.
What role do drugs play in the comparison of the two protagonists?
The analysis notes that while drugs are a central, functional tool for Holmes, they serve as a socio-political backdrop in "When We Were Orphans," illustrating the colonial and personal consequences of the opium trade without serving as an aid to the protagonist's investigation.
- Quote paper
- Mona Baumann (Author), 2018, Deconstructing the Classical English Detective. Detective Work in Kazuo Ishiguro's "When We Were Orphans", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/424749
