As a postmodern realist fiction,The Buried Giant continues to use someconventions of realist fiction,consisting of detailed depiction and complete plot.Interms of detailed depiction,this part studies how the novel characterizes the warriorWistan and the old knight Gawain by the minute depiction of their appearances,behaviors,speech manners and expressions,and also analyzes the detailed descriptionof scenes,aiming to discover the real relationship between people in the scenes andthe role of this technique in the development of plot.As far as complete plot isconcerned,this part expounds how the novel achieves the integrity of plot by using abeginning,a middle and an end.Moreover,it explores the tragic characteristics of theend of the novel.
CHAPTRE VI CONCLUSION
The Buried Giant is a typical novel of postmodern realism,inheriting andtranscending realism and postmodernism.First of all,unlike the postmodernist fiction,which indulges in self-conscious wordplay and formal innovations,this novel aims toreconnect readers to the world and reveals the practical problems in the contemporaryworld.The novel is set in the ancient Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries,skillfullyreproducing the histories of war and religion in post-Roman Britain.Based on thehistory of war during this period,the novel reconstructs the cycle of violence betweenthe Britons and the Saxons,together with a relative peace between the two ethnics.Meanwhile,the novel also reconstructs the religious conflicts between the Britons andthe Saxons on the basis of the history of Christianity at that time.It is noteworthy thatthe historical reconstruction of post-Roman Britain is painted with fantasy and fiction.Instead of merely reproducing this history,the historical references of post-RomanBritain are mainly used to reflect social reality.The social problems the novel reflectinvolve in two aspects,including nation creation and nation maintenance.Based onthe chain of vengeance between the Britons and the Saxons as wells as the religiousdiscrimination of the Britons for the Saxons,the novel explores two social problemswidely occurred in nation creation,including the cycle of vengeance and religiousdiscrimination.Similarly,the novel analyzes the two social problems universallyhappened in nation maintenance on the basis of the Briton scheme of eliminating andbeautifying the Saxon genocide,involving the loss and lies of the dark memories.These problems reflect Ishiguro’s meditation on retributive justice,religiousintolerance and historical revisionism,appealing to the peacemaking based onforgiveness,inclusiveness and confession.
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