The Struggle for “Generativity” in a Dream-like Narrative: An Eriksonian Reading of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled

Abstract

Focusing on the characterization of the middle-aged protagonist of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled, the present paper investigates the way in which Ryder, the protagonist of the novel, confronts and resolves the Eriksonian binary of “generativity versus stagnation” in his midlife crisis. As Erikson considers profession and family as two determinants of the resolution of the midlife binary, this study puts emphasis on those sections of the novel in which the character reviews his professional and family life. Because of Erikson’s simultaneous emphasis on psycho-social matters, the study recurrently discusses issues against the historical backdrops by which the narrators relate stories. Because it focuses on the question of midlife crisis, the research investigates Eriksonian stages of development in the characterization of the protagonist to investigate the relationship among these stages and to depict how they determine the concerns of midlife years.