Posthuman studies have discussed the contemporary subject beyond the boundaries of biological sex or binary constructs of gender identification. Following the theories of Rosi Braidotti and Donna Haraway, this paper discusses the concept of posthuman consciousness in Kazuo Ishiguro's latest novel, Klara and the Sun (2021). The reader is confronted with an artificial character whose growing consciousness participates in the construction of the 'subject'. Contrary to the idea of the android as a non-subject, a nonbeing, the author shows how Klara, a female AF (Android Friend) - a body-machine, a figure of interrelationality - gradually develops remarkable capacities thanks to her ability to observe what is happening outside. If it can be argued that the novel is about what it means to be human in a future of advanced technology, Klara and the Sun is also an example of a new vision of post-human subjectivity.
BEYOND A BODY WITHOUT ORGANS: KAZUO ISHIGURO’S KLARA AND THE SUN
Partenza Paola
2021-01-01
Abstract
Posthuman studies have discussed the contemporary subject beyond the boundaries of biological sex or binary constructs of gender identification. Following the theories of Rosi Braidotti and Donna Haraway, this paper discusses the concept of posthuman consciousness in Kazuo Ishiguro's latest novel, Klara and the Sun (2021). The reader is confronted with an artificial character whose growing consciousness participates in the construction of the 'subject'. Contrary to the idea of the android as a non-subject, a nonbeing, the author shows how Klara, a female AF (Android Friend) - a body-machine, a figure of interrelationality - gradually develops remarkable capacities thanks to her ability to observe what is happening outside. If it can be argued that the novel is about what it means to be human in a future of advanced technology, Klara and the Sun is also an example of a new vision of post-human subjectivity.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
