Nonhuman/Posthuman Aspects in Kazuo Ishiguro’s New Millennium Novels

This final chapter by Hiroshi Ikezono discusses the functions of the nonhuman/posthuman figures in Ishiguro’s latest novels, like the clones in Never Let Me Go and the Artificial Friends in Klara and the Sun. Ikezono argues that Ishiguro uniquely features these figures to emphasise human nature and clarifies these functions of nonhuman/posthuman characters with the theoretical models of Western thinkers like Yuval Noah Harari, Nick Bostrom, and Rosi Braidotti. He suggests that these characters may emphasise the difference between the human and the nonhuman and that such an asymmetry can cause anxiety in the former over being replaced by the latter. However, he further highlights the possibility of the complementary symbiosis between them. His argument clarifies and orders the crucial themes in Ishiguro’s recent works and opens them up to a broader critical discussion in the global context among researchers.