Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
II - INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON LITERATURE, CULTURE AND LANGUAGE, Ankara, Türkiye, 9 - 10 Haziran 2023, ss.279-280
Nocturnes is a collection book which is belong to Kazuo Ishiguro. There are five stories in the
book and they all about love and various shape it can have. Capitalism is one of the repeated
themes in the book and is shown how it affects people and their relations. Kazuo Ishiguro
approaches the subject of capitalism with an implicit reproach in his work. He deals with the
bad traces that capitalism has left on human life without being noticed. In the first story,
Crooner, the main character Tony Gardner is a musician who has started to fall into disrepute,
has lost his old reputation, cannot sell his records as much as before in the capitalist system,
and tries to hold on to the market by struggling. In order to survive and adapt to the capitalist
order, he has to compromise his values, love and even himself. For this reason, he sacrifices
his marriage to capitalism and considers marrying someone much younger than himself just to
regain his former fame and be in the spotlight. In another story, Nocturne, the main
protagonist is a saxhaponist. It is seen that this character is used by his manager and also by
his so-called friend for his financial interests, and is abandoned by his wife due to the
character’s financial difficulties. Story deals with the plastic surgery and experiences of the
musician who cannot stand the pressures and wants to have a say in the music industry. The
third story of the collection is Malvern Hills. In this story, it is possible to see capitalism as a
reason that brings family members apart. The protaganist is a young man who dropped out of
school because of his love for music. He goes to his older sister, who lives in Malvern Hills,
to write new songs and develop his music. But capitalism is like a black cat between siblings.
The purpose of this study is to shed light on the elements of capitalism used by Ishiguro in his
Nocturnes and the way Ishiguro deals with the possible traces that capitalism will leave on
human life.