Reimagining Posthuman Subjectivity From Never Let Me Go To Klara And The Sun

In the two Kazuo Ishiguro novels that include sci-fi elements: Never Let Me Go(2005)and Klara and the Sun(2021),clones and robots as protagonists and the dystopian narrative backgrounds are seemingly deviations from Ishiguro’s characteristic writing of memory and trauma under grand historical backgrounds.Ishiguro’s attempts to break the literary boundary received mixed reviews from critics and the “submissiveness” of his posthuman protagonists is also criticized.Within the similar first-person narrative,the embodiment presented in the clones and the AFs’ narrations,the multiple boundary-breakings between human and posthuman combined with the auto-ethnography building efforts provide a reimagining of posthuman subjectivity.By a comparative study of Ishiguro’s works,it is in the perspective of posthumanism that posthuman subjectivity mutually constituted by the textual body and literary text can be explored,and a continuation and development between the two posthuman novels be highlighted.This thesis is intended to discuss the construction of posthuman subjectivity in two of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels that include posthuman characters.By analyzing the protagonists’ embodiment,the mirrored relation with humans as well as their selfnarration of memories in light of Katherine Hayle’s post-humanism theory,the objective of the thesis is to demonstrate that posthuman subjectivity is constructed through embodied practices from three aspects: embodied self-articulation,embodied interaction with human and embodied self-narration.Five chapters are included in this article.Chapter One is the introduction which contains the relevant literature review,the significance of the research and the theoretical framework.Chapter Two illustrates the physical expression of posthuman from disembodiment to embodiment.The cognition of the body is reflected in posthuman’s embodied articulation and incorporating practices,which determines its influence on the construction of subjectivity.Chapter Three continues to examine the mirrored relations between humans and posthumans,the mutual observation as embodied practices subvert the dichotomy of subject and object while breaking the human-posthuman boundaries.The dynamic interaction marks an indispensable part of the construction of subjectivity.Chapter Four finally investigates the first-person narrative functioning as autoethnography,the embodied self-narration incorporates the textual body and the posthuman body together,guiding the text and the posthuman from closed to self-open.The posthuman subjectivity is thus established both rhetorically and narratively.Chapter Five concludes that in a comparative study of the two fictions,an evolvement of posthuman subjectivity is found in Never Let Me Go to Klara and the Sun that not only redefines the definition of posthuman but reconstitutes the boundaries between human and posthuman.Probing into the nature of posthumans as simultaneously physical entities,living metaphors and narrative constructions,embodied practices and boundary reconstructions are the major ways of subjectivity construction;Initiative,uniqueness and openness marked the advancement within different models of posthuman subjectivity.Ishiguro’s posthuman novels manifest a reimagining of posthuman subjectivity and reveal a transformation of humanposthuman relationships and boundaries.It emphasizes the importance of embodiment from the perspective of posthumanism and heuristically provides an ethical reflection on materiality and information,human and posthuman in the context of technological development.