Remains of the Day

1
Remains of the Day

• Lord Darlington
• Trying to speak German to the Jewish girls
• German diplomats (Ambassador von Ribbentrop and
  his staff) casing his art collection
• Neville Chamberlain Peace in our time
• Stevens
• Deathbed scene with his father
• Dinner scene with Cardinal the journalist
• Scene where he is asked technical questions by
  Darlingtons friends

2
Remains of the Day

• Stevens and politics
• Butler comparable to a public servant
• Comparison with Robert McNamara?
• Public servants who leaked documents to Churchill
• Constraints of domestic service in the Thirties
• Can be fired at employers whim, no rights
• No education provided
• Restrictions on expression of love, sexuality,
  especially at Darlington House
• Few alternatives

3
Ishiguros Remains of the Day

• Novel almost entirely in Stevens head, i.e. his
  recollections while on his trip (including Mrs.
  Benn), with occasional encounters
• Novel written entirely in Stevens unusual
  (formal and anachronistic) voice
• Embedding fictional characters seamlessly in
  actual events (e.g. meeting between Chamberlain
  and Ribbentrop preparatory to Chamberlain meeting
  Hitler in Munich)
• Stevens inner struggle giving the best years of
  his life in service to a misguided master,
  failing to understand what Miss Kenton was trying
  to tell him but in retrospect trying to justify
  his actions
• Pp. 199-201, 227-8

4
Management Lessons

• Learning from failures (Darlington, Stevens) not
  larger than life heroes
• Small lessons (dealing with media)
• Ethical issue serving someone whose values you
  dont accept
• Life issue balancing your own life with your
  obligations at work and Ishiguro cleverly
  imagined circumstances where they conflicted
  (Stevens entirely lacked balance)

5
Course Sum-up

• Choice of works
• Raise management and leadership skills, ethical
  choices faced by managers, relationship between
  work and life
• Ways of telling a story, conveying a message
  (especially in film as a medium)
• Unfortunately few Canadian works (might have used
  Richlers Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz)

6
Course Sum-up

• Choice of pedagogy
• Not conveying a large body of technical
  information (lecture format) but illustrating a
  number of narrative concepts
• Elaborate student presentations used in past were
  great for the presenters but encourage
  free-riding by others
• Discussion groups focus on two skills collective
  sharing of information and individual briefings
  with tight deadlines

7
My next steps

• Working on book about public sector management
  narratives
• Completed draft of introduction, chapters on
  transformative teachers, UK narratives about
  political-public service interface, appeasement
  (Remains of Day), Cuban Missile crisis chapter
  on US political narratives next
• After that a book about private sector management
  narratives

8
Reminders

• Final exam Saturday, Dec. 6, 9 am to noon, Room
  MW110
• Similar format to mid-term, responsible for all
  material but with emphasis on material since
  mid-term
• I am available by email (check it daily) and by
  phone or appointment