The Loss of the Real in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go , Klara and the Sun and Nocturnes

El Habib El Hadari

The Loss of the Real in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go , Klara and the Sun and Nocturnes

Číslo: 1/2023
Periodikum: Prague Journal of English Studies
DOI: 10.2478/pjes-2023-0003

Klíčová slova: e real; the simulated; loss; scientific knowledge; dystopia; human cloning;cosmetic surgery; artificial intelligence

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Anotace: is paper addresses the issue of the loss of the real in the fi ction of Kazuo Ishiguroas a contemporary author whose thought line is still in progress. His approach tothis issue is anti-capitalist as he questions the so-called scientifi c advancement ledby cash-oriented capitalists and industrialists. His writing seeks to strip the veil ofthe murderous nature of this kind of science. He blames it for killing the real andcreating a world of simulations. He animadverts upon dystopian spaces where he holdspostmodern scientific knowledge responsible for the digression of the natural course oflife and lays bare the secrets behind the replacement of the real with the simulated bydrawing attention to such debatable topics as human cloning, cosmetic surgeries andartificial intelligence. In terms of methodology of analysis, this paper is primarily basedon a close examination of the author’s literary texts: two novels (Never Let Me Goand Klara and the Sun) and three short stories from Nocturnes (“Malvern Hills”,“Nocturne” and “Crooner”). Postmodernist concepts have been of great relevance tothe analysis of these texts, for his fi ction could not be approached in isolation fromthe realities of the postmodern era where it’s produced. Equally, bearing in mind theauthor’s socio-ethnic and historical background, the society where he lives and thepolitico-cultural transformations of the world aer the Second World War plays animportant role in the analysis of his texts.