Artificial Intelligence and Posthuman Subjectivity in Contemporary English Fiction: Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun and Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me

Abstract

    The study examines two contemporary English novels that explore artificial intelligence and posthuman subjectivity. Through a detailed analysis of the works, the study examines how these works of fiction present artificial intelligence as more than just a technological creation, but as a narrative creation that has a role to play in the construction of subjectivity and humanism. From a post humanist perspective, informed by the works of Rosi Braidotti and N. Katherine Hayles, the study argues that works of fiction on artificial intelligence are not just a representation of the fear of being replaced by technology, but a critical analysis of moral and existential questions of human vulnerability, identity, and responsibility. Not only do these works of fiction present artificial intelligence as being capable of emotions and cognitions, but they are also a commentary on the limitations of humanity itself, thereby blurring the lines between what is human and what is non-human. It concludes that such a dimension of literary imagination is simultaneously one of the critical spaces contemporary English fiction occupies within philosophy. The influence of the term "posthuman" to showcase art around an AI in itself constitutes a form of criticism, framing AI as an extensive drug that tends the human longings through which we construct time and future (Braidotti, 2013, pp. 48–55).