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Mastering otherness with a look : on the politics of the gaze and technological possibility in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun

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Date
07/03/2023
Author
Simonetti, Nicola
Keywords
Gaze theory
Posthumanism
Kazuo Ishiguro
Michel Foucault
T-NDAS
MCP
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Abstract
This article examines the transformative effects of adding gaze theory to the critical approaches that have focused on Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (2021). Drawing on the issues of looking dynamics and surveillance in Michel Foucault’s epistemology of the gaze, the argument is that a Foucauldian reading of Ishiguro’s story uncovers the dependence of its power relations on gazing practices. By exploring the humanoid robot Klara’s storyline, I highlight the dual role of the gaze and related visual dynamics in Klara and the Sun as both facilitators of humans’ mastery of nonhumans and sites of nonhuman possibility. My analysis suggests that the novel articulates a complex disciplinary system in which the technological Other is constantly reified by both the human gaze and internalised practices of self-discipline. At the same time, against the reductive reading of Klara as a technological Other at the service of human selves, this article also proposes her figure as one of transgressive boundaries and gaze-engendered opposition, arguing that the novel’s social system is ultimately undermined by the visual acts of overconformity that Klara adopts.
Citation
Simonetti , N 2023 , ' Mastering otherness with a look : on the politics of the gaze and technological possibility in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun ' , Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction . https://doi.org/10.1080/00111619.2023.2186773
Publication
Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/00111619.2023.2186773
ISSN
0011-1619
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/27154

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