https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/jls/issue/feed 2024-04-16T09:04:17+00:00 Richard Alan Northover jls1@unisapressjournals.co.za Open Journal Systems <div align="left"> <p><strong>Open Access</strong></p> <p>The <em>Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap </em>publishes and globally disseminates original and cutting-edge research informed by Literary and Cultural Theory. The Journal is an independent yearly publication owned and published by the Literature Association of South Africa in partnership with Unisa Press. The journal publishes articles and full-length review essays on literature and comparative literature informed by General Literary Theory, Genre Studies, and Critical Theory.</p> </div> https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/jls/article/view/14849 2024-02-13T13:10:18+00:00 Guanghui Shang dillonzhushang@163.com

<p>Bringing into dialogue the theory of mindreading reformulated within cognitive narratology, this article offers an analysis of Kazuo Ishiguro’s <em>Klara and the Sun</em> (2021). It argues that Ishiguro extends this theory beyond human minds to nonhuman minds and human-machine bonds to explore human minds as human essence. By examining an artificial-intelligence (AI) character-narrator’s struggle to read human minds through observation, this study draws two conclusions. Firstly, machines cannot comprehend entire human minds due to their complexity and variability. A mind encompasses not only an individual’s own intricate thoughts and emotions but also others’ diverse feelings about this individual. Secondly, both humans and machines engage in one-sided mindreading without eliciting reciprocal affective responses. This suggests that the limitations of robotic mindreading, coupled with human anthropocentrism, prevent the establishment of true human-machine intersubjectivity. By illustrating machines’ incapability to possess human minds through robotic narrative, Ishiguro offers a new perspective on the theory of mindreading, asserting the irreplaceable nature of human minds in the age of AI to prompt a reflection on the uniqueness of human minds, a realm that machines cannot replicate or transfer.</p>

2024-02-13T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2024 Guanghui Shang https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/jls/article/view/15643 2024-02-13T13:10:16+00:00 Naomi Nkealah naomi.nkealah@wits.ac.za 2024-02-13T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2024 Naomi Nkealah https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/jls/article/view/15754 2024-02-13T13:10:13+00:00 Alan Northover northra@unisa.ac.za 2024-02-13T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2024 Alan Northover https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/jls/article/view/16073 2024-04-16T09:04:17+00:00 Antoinette Pretorius pretoae@unisa.ac.za

<p>Book review</p>

2024-04-16T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2024 Antoinette Pretorius