Pastoral, identity, and memory in the works of John Banville

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John Banville's works waver indecisively between modernism and postmodernism. This study offers a hitherto unexplored vista on his works and argues that Banville is a post-/modern pastoralist. The pastoral lens opens new vistas to Banville's central concerns: the collusion of ethics and aesthetics, self-identification in narrative, and the topography of the troubled mind. Banville's characters harbour an Arcadia of the unconscious conditioned by a subtext of nostalgia. Caught in a crisis, his characters explore, subvert and transform the pastoral mode into an ambiguous quest for a stable self.