本文是一篇英语论文，本文运用美国著名后人类学家凯瑟琳·海尔斯的后人类主义理论，通过分析小说中克隆人的身体表达，与人类的关系，展示了三个方面的身体实践：离身化的身体表征、具身化的自我尝试、与人类的身体互动反思，以期促进关于克隆人、其他后人类甚至人类社会中的弱势群体该如何处理与他人的关系，才能促进双方共同发展的思考。
Chapter One The Disappearing Body: Impact of Dualism on the Disembodiment of Clones
1.1 The Opposition Between Man and Machine: Dehumanization of Body
For a long time, there has been a subject-object relationship between human beings and machines, with human beings manipulating and controlling the machines, and a stable one-way communication between the human beings as users and the machines being used. According to early cybernetics, the interaction between human beings and machines became a “face-to-face communication” or formed an interface through the feedback of information. “An interface occurs where two or more information sources come face-to-face” (Heim 76). According to Katherine Hayles, John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener led the way by making clear that the important entity in the man-machine equation was information, not energy (52). They went on to suggest that different contexts affected the meaning conveyed by information, and attempts to decontextualize information were seen by Moravec as the idea of downloading information from the human brain into a computer. It helped to make computers become tools that could think, and Wiener, who deeply felt the great threat that machines posed to humans, warned humans not to become their slaves. This early anxious attitude toward human-machine relations is reflected in many literary works. In Never Let Me Go, the opposition between humans and clones leads to the dehumanization of the clones’ bodies, and the humans’ consistent attitude of disciplining, controlling, and exploiting the clones completely classifies them into the range of inanimate objects. Human beings have arbitrarily deprived the clones of their reproductive rights, restricted their personal freedom, and casually addressed and trampled on their right to life. Therefore, the dehumanization for clones can be explained as downgrading of their class species as inanimate in terms of the biophysical presentation as well as trampling on their basic rights to be treated equally as human beings considering their social characters.
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1.2 The Opposition Between Mind and Body: Instrumentalization of Body
英语论文怎么写
What’s more, multiple plots can be seen in the novel where the clone body and mind are attempted to be placed in opposition by humans. From ancient times to the present day, there have been theorists continuously attempting to make the discussions of separating the mind from the body. Plato argued that the body pulls the human subject to a lower status and the mind lifts it to a higher place. In general, he demanded to control the body’s needs instead of pandering to them. In the modern time, post-human theorists have made heated debates about whether machines or post-human beings should have minds. Hayles has emphasized in her theoretical work that “the post-human is ‘post’ not because it is necessarily unfree but because there is no prior way to identify a self-will that can be clearly distinguished from an other-will” (4).
In Never Let Me Go, teachers of Hailsham encourage their students for art creation. They hold the large annual arts and crafts exchange every year and encourage students to express their inner feelings through paintings and poetry with the best of their paintings being selected for the gallery. The students seem to enjoy individual freedom, but in fact they are caught in a circle of human regulation. The purpose of these paintings and poems is cruelly revealed to be a tool used by the human to test the stability of the clones’ physical state. That is, the paintings are not so much to “display your souls” (Ishiguro 242) but rather to “prove you had souls at all” (Ishiguro 249).
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Chapter Two The Recovering Body: The Clones’ Pursuit of Embodiment
2.1 The Emphasis on Embodiment at the Mental Level
In early Turing tests, a person uses a computer to communicate with two entities (human or computer) in another room, at which point the human body is divided into a represented body and the enacted body. The represented body is appeared as flesh and blood on one side of the computer screen and the enacted body is displayed on an electronic screen through the language and symbols. If man communicates only through the enacted body formed by the computer, it means that man can remain alone in his room all the time and be able to solve the problems of the external world only through rational discussion. Obviously, this ignores the realities of the problems. The represented body and the enacted body should be closely integrated. For this reason, Hayles calls for the importance of the embodiment to return to the stage, since “embodiment makes clear that thought is a much broader cognitive function depending for its specificities on the embodied form enacting it” (prologue 4). Here, the emphasis is equally placed on the significance of both the external representation and the internal form of the body. That is, the mind and the flesh collectively constitute the integrity of the body, facilitating its embodiment. The pursuit of thought by clones is therefore a form of resistance they undertake in order to achieve the embodiment of their bodies. When human beings try to de-intellectualize the clones into a machine with only intact organs, the clones continue to rebel by enriching their mind.
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2.2 The Emphasis on Embodiment at the Practical Level
Another way to achieve embodiment is through the practice. Hayles illustrates the importance of practice in post-human theory through the example of Janet Freed. As a conference assistant at the Macy Conference in post-human studies, Janet was responsible for turning the speeches of the participants into typed transcripts and she had to record them by listening to tape recordings of earlier conferences. Once, after painfully listening to a recording, she ran to the leader’s office and suggested that conference organizers should require speakers to submit drafts of their speeches in advance so that she could be more efficient. The laborious work behind was a mere abstraction for the leader since he was not the one paying for the labor. But in fact, the language from the recording cannot put words on paper on their own, and it needs to be backed up by practice. Messages don’t flow on their own, and the language can’t keep Tommy’s drawing board waiting to be fulfilled, or the clones’ prototypes waiting to be found, or bring Kathy and Tommy directly to Madame Ruth. It works until the body is governed by practice.
Primarily, clones’ journey in search of love represents a remarkable practice of experiential embodiment. As clones grow to a certain age, they are suffered from desire for love and sex even though these are very sensitive topics at school. The guardians set many rules, whereby girls are not allowed to visit the boys’ dormitory after 9 p.m. Many occasions such as classrooms and sports halls are the restricted areas at night due to concerns that love may negatively influence the physical health of the clones. But they still explore the matters of sex and love, unable to restrain their curiosity about them. As Donna Haraway has mentioned in “A Manifesto for Cyborgs”, when the cyborg can spark erotic fascination, the human/machine distinction is violated and body boundaries are up for grabs. (Hayles 84).
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Chapter Three The Reflections of the Relationship Between Post-humans and Humans ...................... 49
3.1 Analysis of Technological Body ................................. 49
3.2 Warning of Personalized Body ................................... 55
3.3 Examination of Differentiated Body .......................... 60
Conclusion ................. 65
Chapter Three The Reflections of the Relationship Between Post-humans and Humans
3.1 Analysis of Technological Body
This chapter tries to reflect on the relationship between the post-human and the human. This also reflects the author’s attitude towards the technologized body, i.e., the impact of technology on the body is unavoidable, and for this reason, extremist technological conservatism is not in line with the trend of social development. At the same time, the author also opposes the technological singularity, which reflects the author’s expectation for deepening the communication between two cultural trends, namely, the humanities and the sciences.
German famous economist Klaus Schwab believes that human society is moving towards the fourth industrial revolution, human beings will once again realize the quality of production and life through technological innovation. Just as the previous three industrial revolutions brought human society into the age of steam, the electrical age and the age of information, the fourth industrial revolution will also bring human beings into a completely new era. “It is characterized by a much more ubiquitous and mobile internet, by smaller and more powerful sensors that have become cheaper, and by artificial intelligence and machine learning” (12).
英语论文参考
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Conclusion
The British writer Kazuo Ishiguro crafted his masterpiece Never Let Me Go during a time of rapid technological progress. This novel serves as a commentary on the variations of post-human bodies. In this work, Ishiguro portrays the disembodied state of clone bodies and their quest for embodiment. This exploration reflects the intricate relationship between post-humans and humans. Ishiguro presents a variety of bodily forms, examining how these different forms shape the relationships between humans and post-humans.
Recent social, cultural, and technological shifts have placed the body at the heart of contemporary political discussions. The body, being the fundamental medium for human experience, acquires more complex features as it interacts with society and culture. As the traditional boundaries between nature and society are increasingly blurred and altered, debates over bodily forms have become ongoing. In this context, the renowned post - humanist scholar N. Katherine Hayles puts forward the concept of the “embodied body.” This concept emphasizes not only the body’s external physical manifestation but also the experiences constructed by society. It offers a valuable perspective for analyzing how bodies are presented in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.
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