Twenty-first International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This paper explores the performative function of literature in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, a novel that, significantly, exemplifies the performative function of literature in particular and of art in general. It does its work by getting the readers to see science differently by way of fiction, not by direct representation of science. The Hailsham experiment, which aims to challenge the whole system of the organs’ donation programme, fails because it will contribute further to the consideration of the students as “shadowy objects in test tube”, both to alleviate the guilt of those who thought of using science for these purposes and above all through the solitary performances of the teachers of the college, who with their methods do not encourage students to become more aware. It is an experiment that aims to destroy identity, to demotivate every project by extinguishing dreams and hopes, to stifle any unforeseen development, to ignore individuals and individual psychic processes, sexual orientation and emotional disorientation. After a first theoretical part where the notion of performative is developed, the paper proceed with an analysis of the novel in order to show what NLMG shares with Posthumanism and posthuman critical theories to conclude that both are committed to the construction and representation of the human under the pressure of a new conception of existence in which technological invasions require a redefinition of individuals and their identity in the light of an anthropodecentralized, anti-human and therefore posthuman condition.

Presenters

Marilena Saracino
Aggregate Professor of English Language and Literature, Department of Management and Business Administration, University, Pescara, Italy