Reconstructing the Intersubjectivity of Post-human beings: Non-human Narrative in Klara and The Sun

Abstract

The novel Klara and The Sun by 2017 Nobel Prize Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro is narrated from the perspective of an artificial friend (AF) Klara, telling the story among Klara, manager, Josie’s family and other human beings. Both “lifted” children like Josie and the AFs like Klara are post-human beings. These human and non-human beings are faced with crisis of objectification by deconstructing their subjectivity, and finally trying to reconstruct their own “personality”, which shows Ishiguro’s deep thinking on how to define human and non-human, as well as the understanding on humanity and human heart: if the disintegration of subjectivity is inevitable, then intersubjectivity established on emotion rather than calculation would be the reservation for humanity.