The English Countryside in Kazuo Ishiguro's «Never Let Me Go», between displacement and estrangement

Abstract

In Never Let Me Go (2005) Kazuo Ishiguro portrays a future world set in the past; the narrative voice is an artificial being who gradually reveals her subaltern condition to the reader. In the novel, the spatial dimension is crucial: within a dystopic frame the English countryside is rendered in ahistorical terms, and reinforces the estrangement and alienation of the characters, who live in a rarefied atmosphere, emotionally rooted in a vague and mostly undefined environment, occupying a marginal and dislocated position.