Robotic Narrative, Mindreading and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun

Guanghui Shang — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Bringing into dialogue the theory of mindreading reformulated within cognitive narratology, this article offers an analysis of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (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.

My Silver Stripes and Other Poems, by Maletšema Ruth Emsley

Naomi Nkealah — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory: An Overview, by Jeffrey Di Leo

Alan Northover — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Literary Gerontology Comes of Age: A Poetic Language of Ageing (2023), edited by Olga V. Lehmann and Oddgeir Synnes

Antoinette Pretorius — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Book review

Journal of Literary Studies

Robotic Narrative, Mindreading and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun

My Silver Stripes and Other Poems, by Maletšema Ruth Emsley

Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory: An Overview, by Jeffrey Di Leo

Literary Gerontology Comes of Age: A Poetic Language of Ageing (2023), edited by Olga V. Lehmann and Oddgeir Synnes