The Representation of Fukuyama’s Pathways to a Posthuman Future in Brave New World and Never Let Me Go
Abstract
Dealing with the in-vitro creation of human beings, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005) share the dystopian tradition, holding a catastrophic view of a technocratic society in a future in which humanity is depicted to be in a state of crisis. This article aims to examine the above-mentioned novels in terms of posthumanism, focusing on one of the well-known theorists of this field, Francis Fukuyama, who in Our Posthuman Future treats posthumanism as a threat to humanistic values. Fukuyama warns against a posthuman future in which technology will give us the capacity to modify the essence of human nature gradually, over time. The focus of this article will be on “Factor X”, a concept introduced by Fukuyama, and the ways in which the characters of the novels possess it, or come into its possession. The ways in which Fukuyama’s pathways to a posthuman world are realised in the dystopian worlds that Huxley and Ishiguro create, are also discussed.
Opsomming
Aldous Huxley se Brave New World (1932) en Kazuo Ishiguro se Never Let me Go (2005) handel oor die in vitro-skepping van menslike wesens en deel die distopiese tradisie, met ’n katastrofiese beskouing van ’n tegnokratiese gemeenskap in ’n toekoms waarin die mensdom in ’n krisistoestand uitgebeeld word. Hierdie artikel het dit ten doel om bogenoemde romans aan die hand van posthumanisme te ondersoek, met die fokus op een van die welbekende teoretici op hierdie gebied, Francis Fukuyama, wat posthumanisme in Our Posthuman Future as ’n bedreiging vir human-istiese waardes sien. Fukuyama waarsku teen ’n posthumane toekoms waarin tegnologie ons die vermoë sal gee om die kern van die menslike aard geleidelik, met verloop van tyd, te wysig. Die fokus van hierdie artikel is op “Faktor X”, ’n konsep wat Fukuyama bekendgemaak het, en die maniere waarop die karakters in die romans daaroor beskik, of hoe hulle dit verkry. Die maniere waarop Fukuyama se roetes na ’n posthumane wêreld verwerklik word in die distopiese wêrelde wat Huxley en Ishiguro skep, word ook bespreek.
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