POSTHUMAN IDENTITY IN KAZUO ISHIGURO’S NEVER LET ME GO: A CRITICAL SPECULATIVE LENS

Abstract

The article is about the lives of organ donor clones who are developed and other clones within a dystopian society in a Kazuo Ishiguro novel, Never Let Me Go, and they pose a crucial question on human identity, morality and agency. In this paper, the posthuman approach is applied to analyse how Ishiguro criticizes the conventional boundaries of human life. The research explores the connotations of the constructed identity of the characters and the speculative existence of the characters and places them within the context of posthumanism discourse as a whole. This paper positions that the development and experiences through which the clones develop emotionally create an interruption to the traditional understandings of personhood by considering such themes as agency autonomy, and the nature of humanity. The study entails the use of a speculative critical approach, combining posthumanist theory analysis and the film to integrate it, shedding new light on the role of clones in the determination of self and identity. Essential findings indicate that the reading material written by Ishiguro criticizes the dehumanization of man into a biological process by humankind and indignities the ethical line between man and machine. The paper fits into the emerging literature that analyses the scope of speculative fiction and its relation to posthuman identity..