The example he gives is that The Remains of The Day was "essentially" a "repeat of the territory covered" in Artist of the Floating World: "That latter book, when I came to the end of it, struck me as dealing with the theme of the wasted life only from the career perspective.
These plays deal with the themes of stoicism and religious constancy unto martyrdom, of the Christian ruler and the Machiavellian tyrant, and of illusion and reality, a theme that is used with telling effect in the middle-class background of Cardenio und Celinde.
His contribution to the Artes Mundi exhibition in Cardiff later this month deals with the themes of transcendence and transformation, including a video piece Billy Sings Amazing Grace, in which his music troupe, Black Monks of Mississippi, reply to an older black man, Billy Foster, in a traditional call and response.
The shortest novel of the six finalists, it deals with the themes of childhood friendship and the imperfections of memory.
The interviews, dinners, and symposia with real Chicagoans talking about how they've dealt with the themes of the play--become a merging of the fictional with the real.
The story deals with the themes of provincial rivalry between Ulster and Connacht, communal feasting and the heroic contest over the curadmír, and includes elements which show parallels with older Gaulish and pan-Celtic traditions.
