A Study Of The Clones’ Subjectivity In Never Let Me Go From The Perspective Of Biopolitics

As an advocate of“international writing,”Kazuo Ishiguro,a Japanese-born British author,has dedicated himself to conveying the universality or commonality of human experience through mastery of exquisite and modest language.Setting against the background of cloning technology that emerged in the 20^thcentury,his first science fiction,Never Let Me Go,revolves around a group of cloning students who provide organs to humans.It describes how the subject becomes a“quiet victim”to biopolitics and demonstrates the philosophy of life that the subject insists on a decent existence in a desperate situation.Therefore,drawing on Michel Foucault’s theory of biopolitics,this thesis aims to explore the clones’subjectivity under the intervention of the two poles of biopolitics,namely individual discipline and population governance.This thesis consists of five parts.The introduction includes Ishiguro’s literary background,research direction based on analysis of research status at home and abroad,as well as the theoretical basis:biopolitics and subjectivity.The main body of the thesis is divided into three chapters.The first chapter focuses on the germ of subjectivity at Hailsham.Under the condition that Hailsham not only stands for the ideal of supporting life but also serves as a system of disciplining life,the clones endeavor to stimulate subjectivity actively by means of body.The second chapter probes into the development of subjectivity at the Cottages.As a safety mechanism of biopolitics,the milieu isolates the clones in the zone of human and inhuman,but they make full use of liberalism of biopolitics to construct self-knowledge.The third chapter points out that the subjectivity of clones is highly mature in recovery centers.At this stage,racism inherent in biopolitics is exposed,and the asymmetric life tension between the survival of humans and the death of clones is completely revealed.Faced with predestined death,the clones strive to pursue self-worth and explore the meaning of life in connection with the world and others.The emotional experience such as dignity and sense of responsibility manifested by their subject behavior allows them to be more human than human beings.The last part draws the conclusion of this thesis based on the above discussion.Under the dual governance of biopolitics,instead of escaping or resorting to violent means,the clones devote themselves to the short life experience,showing that in the face of the finiteness of life,subjectivity can endow life with infinite meaning.Additionally,this thesis maintains that besides the issue of national governance and the fate of tragedy on the verge of life and death,the value and experience of the individual’s life also deserve urgent attention from biopolitics.