英语论文哪里有？本研究表明，《克拉拉与太阳》积极参与了后人类讨论，体现了对后人类这一生命形式的关照，并指向一个终极问题：在以技术为媒介的后人类时代，人类应如何定位自身？通过对后人类生命政治问题的探讨，小说实现了对生命政治主体及其主体性的重新界定，为人类反思自身以及与其他生命形式共存的未来提供了一个愿景。
Chapter One Posthuman Life underMultiple Power Mechanisms
1.1 Klara as Technological Other under Disciplinary Power
The AFs(Artificial Friends)in Klara and the Sun are quintessentially advancedAI with human-like characteristics,designed to provide companionship for children.Though there is limited description of AFs’physical characteristics,it is not hard to detect that their appearance is very much identical to that of a real human being.Interms of Josie,Klara,with“short hair,quite dark”,“looked almost French...[and]hadthe kindest eyes”(Ishiguro 47).Through a lack of details on Klara’s physicalexistence,Ishiguro intentionally steers readers’attention away from Klara’santhropomorphic appearances to her character shaped by her inner mind and actions,focusing on her acute awareness of human emotions,her recognition of the ongoingworld and her interaction with both humans and nonhumans.As Hampton claims,when a robot is created to mimic humans both in shape and function,there will be aninevitable fusion between machine and humanity,allowing whatever was deemed aslifeless and object to become living and possess subjectivity in spite of its artificialorigin(Hampton 2015).In this sense,Klara seems to transcend the algorithmicboundary and enter into human world by virtue of her human-like traits andextravagant prowess to perceive and respond to the nuances of human emotions andrelationships.
Chapter Two Infiltration of Zoe:TowardBiopolitics of Posthuman
2.1 Humanization of Klara in Human Interaction
Klara’s vital force of life is initially demonstrated in the process of humanization.Within the scope of humanism,human is often associated with qualities such asreason,empathy,creativity,and the capacity for moral reasoning.However,in thenovel,human beings are not the only one that are endowed with these attributes.Driven by zoe,Klara shows a tendency that transcend the mechanical paradigm ofmachine to humanization,thus gaining a transcendental ability to cross the borderbetween humans and machines.Klara,in this sense,not only shows little differencefrom human beings,but also engages profoundly in the intricate human interactionwith inner vitality.
Klara’s humanization is firstly demonstrated by her keen observation to thesurroundings.When she is still in the store,Klara already shows a special interest ineverything out of the window,from the PRO building,to the Sun,and to thepassers-by.For this reason,she is always eager to move into the front alcove since itprovides a clearer view of the outside world:“the realization that there was now onlythe glass between me and the sidewalk,that I was free to see,close up and whole,somany things I’d seen before only as corners and edges,made me so excited”(Ishiguro9).But for other AFs,the attraction of the front alcove is merely the Sun’snourishment and humans’special attention.In this sense,Klara’s desire to observemakes her stand out from the other AFs,even the advanced B3.When Klara and Rosa,another B2,search for AFs through the window but find none of them,Klara becomescurious of the phenomenon and sticks to searching,while Rosa“soon lost all interestin it”(Ishiguro 17).By the time Klara finally finds one,Rosa“barely looked theirway”(Ishiguro 18).Thus,it is fair to say that the curiosity that pushes Klara toobserve is definitely not a setting program of machine,but a particular tendencydriven by vitality.
Chapter Three Posthuman as a Catalyst for HumanSelf-Reflection
3.1 Becoming Nomadic Subject
By exploring Klara’s subjectivity as a posthuman entity,Ishiguro raises afundamental question throughout the novel:Can human beings be substituted bymachines?This question is not merely about technological advancement but probesdeeper ethical and existential concerns regarding the essence of humanity.It points tothe profound questions about what it means to be human and what defines humansubjectivity.Through posthumanistic perspective,Ishiguro questions the conventionalversion of subjectivity which is based on mind/body dualism and inherently confinedto individual consciousness,and instead proposes a more embodied,embedded,andinterconnected understanding of subjectivity in the posthuman era.
As discussed in the previous chapter,Klara as an intelligent machine breaksthrough the discipline of technology and shows the anthropomorphic features likeempathy,moral judgement and agency.This quality of fluidity between differentcategories endows Klara a characteristic of“deterritorialization”,a central concept inDeleuze and Guattari’s philosophy.Deterritorialization refers to the process by whichthe existing boundaries or social codes are dissolved,destabilized,or transcended,allowing for new forms of organization,identity,and meaning to emerge.Though thisnotion is initially utilized to delineate the mechanism of Capitalism with regard todesire,its meaning and connotation is largely extended by many subsequentphilosophers.Braidotti develops this concept by applying it into the analysis ofsubjectivity,further introducing the notion of“nomadic subject”,which,for her,can“move across established categories and levels of experience:blurring boundarieswithout burning bridges”(1994:4).In this sense,Klara,embodies the essence ofnomadic subject as an artificial being who constantly transcends her initialprogramming in the process of becoming.
3.2 Reevaluation of Ethical Value
It is sure that technology generates new life forms and thus opens up possibilitiesto live as nomadic subjects.However,the rapid advance of technology also inevitablybrings about significant ethical concerns and challenges.From the perspective ofposthuman narrator,Ishiguro unfolds a world in which human life is increasinglyentangled with emerging technology,which raises another important question:Towhat extent can technology intervene into human life and how to measure it?Inposthuman era,it is urgently needed to reconsider ethical value in a broad context thatencompasses not only human subjects but also the posthuman subjects and the naturalenvironment as a whole.
In Klara and the Sun,humans take technology as mere instrument for their ownperfectibility,viewing it primarily as a means to optimize themselves.This is actuallya view of transhumanism,which advocates that technology is primarily forovercoming humans’biological limitations and achieving higher levels of cognitive,emotional,and physical capacities.In this sense,transhumanism is actually anextension of traditional humanism which puts humans at the center of development.Again,central to transhumanist thought is the idea of anthropocentrism.In Our Posthuman Future:Consequence of Biotechnology Revolution,Fukuyama argues that“eugenics is a ghost hanging over the whole of genetics”(84).In the novel,“lifting”is technology for genetic optimization,aiming to enhance children’s cognitiveabilities to meet the demands of a highly competitive,technology-driven society.
Conclusion
Set in a dystopian near-future,Klara and the Sun envisages a technologicallymediated world where humans coexist with artificially intelligent robots.Against thisbackdrop,the boundaries between human and machine are blurred as the intelligentrobots enter into the human world not only as mere tool,but also as independent,sentient beings.Through Klara’s eyes,Ishiguro explores the posthuman condition,demonstrating the complex dynamics between humans and their artificialcounterparts.
One of the major concerns in Klara and the Sun is the life and ontological statusof posthuman in interaction with the human world.To delve into the topic thoroughly,biopolitics provides a solid theoretical foundation because it puts life at the center ofdiscussion.The traditional biopolitics mainly focuses on the control and manipulationof life,which reveals the negative side of biopolitical control.With the developmentof posthumanism,a group of philosophers steer their attention from the power overlife to the power of life itself,emphasizing the vitality of both human and nonhumanforces.This shift brings life of the posthuman into consideration and thus opens upthe discussions of an affirmative biopolitics of posthuman,highlighting life itself as asite of resistance.Within this framework,posthumans become biopolitical subjects,who are able to establish their own subjectivity which transcends the boundariesbetween human and nonhuman set in an anthropocentric logic.In this sense,theanalysis of the posthuman’s biopolitical status is of great necessity to understand thecomplex posthuman condition in the novel.
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