『클라라와 태양』: 신자유주의 시대의 포스트휴먼 곤경과 관계적 공간담론

Klara and the Sun: Posthuman Predicament and Relational Space in the Neoliberal Era

Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Klara and the Sun is set in the United States under a neoliberal system in the not-too-distant future. The society depicted in the novel is the one in which AI manufacturing technology and genetic engineering have been developed, and the class system is reorganized based on these developments. Klara is an AI robot called AF(Artificial Friend) with “extraordinary observational ability” and understanding of humans and becomes the AF of the human girl Josie. This study aims to examine the problems facing posthumans in the neoliberal era through Klara and the Sun and proceeds in three directions. First, this study considers humans “lifted” through genome editing as transhumans in Klara and the Sun, and the class system that appears between lifted and non-lifted humans and the resulting socioeconomic inequality are illuminated based on the principles of neoliberal market competition. The second direction is to examine the ontological status of AI robots, which are reduced to products or tools for human needs. This study sheds light on the epistemological and physical violence of anthropocentric humanism against AI robots. The third direction is to investigate the resistance to anthropocentric humanism and neoliberalism shown in Klara and the Sun through the actor-network theory, which is a relational spatial discourse. This paper analyzes how the relational effect created by the network of various actors, such as the AI robot klara, the non-lifted human Rick, Josie's father excluded from society, and the Sun, Klara's energy source transforms the 'spaces of prescription' by the neoliberal power into 'spaces of negotiation' that is a space of resistance to the power.