The Storyteller's Nostos: Recreating Scheherazade and Odysseus in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.

El nostos de la narradora: recreando a Sherezade y a Odiseo en Never Let Me Go de Kazuo Ishiguro.

NEVER Let Me Go (Book : Ishiguro); ISHIGURO, Kazuo, 1954-; ODYSSEUS, King of Ithaca (Mythological character) in literature; SCHEHERAZADE, Queen, consort of Shahryar, King of Persia (Legendary character) in literature; STORYTELLING; MEMORY in literature

This article studies the account of Kathy H., protagonist of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2005), as the confluence of narratives through which an individual and her community construct their identity based on the remembrance of the events that have marked their lives, as well as on the literary texts and cultural conventions that have served as the archetypes upon which the narratives of their lives are built. Two paradigmatic figures stand out in Kathy's story: Odysseus, the lost seafarer endeavouring to return home, and Scheherazade, the artful storyteller of the Arabian Nights. From this perspective, Kathy's recollection constitutes her attempt to return to the mythic place that Hailsham has come to represent for clones that, unable to be carried out on physical terms, induces her to find alternative means to recover it through memory and storytelling. As a result, she constitutes a replication of Scheherazade, adapting this figure to her dystopian and postcolonial context in a narration that explores the interplay between memory, fiction and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lo largo de este ensayo se estudiará la narración de Kathy H., protagonista de Never Let Me Go (2005) de Kazuo Ishiguro, como la confluencia de narrativas a través de las cuales el individuo y su comunidad construyen su identidad. Esta convergencia resulta del recuerdo, la tradición literaria y los fetiches culturales que sirven de arquetipos sobre los cuales se construye la narrativa de sus vidas. Dos figuras paradigmáticas se yerguen como pilares interpretativos de la historia: Ulises, el navegante perdido que sueña con el regreso a casa y Sherezade, la habilidosa hilandera de historias de las Mil y una noches. Desde esta perspectiva, el recuento de Kathy se elabora como el intento de retornar al mítico lugar en el que Hailsham se ha convertido para los clones a través de la continua recreación de anécdotas, recuerdos y experiencias. Ante el fracaso de esta empresa, Kathy recurre a métodos alternativos para recuperar este paraíso, lo que conduce a la transformación de la protagonista en una Sherezade distópica en un contexto poscolonial dentro de una narración que explora la relación entre memoria, ficción e identidad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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