International Journal of Frontiers in Sociology, 2023, 5(3); doi: 10.25236/IJFS.2023.050305.
Huaan Wang
Guangzhou Huashang College, Guangzhou, 511399, China
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, which depicts the unfortunate prospect of a group of clones in a dystopian way, has a central theme of power and oppression. From a biopolitical perspective, it may be called “an Agambenian novel.” The clones who seem to live a “normal” life but eventually have to face their unusual destiny, resemble what Agamben has elaborated as “homo sacer”. This essay argues how the sovereign power turns the clones into “bare life” by means of spatial isolation, leaving them trapped in a state of exception—in which legality and legal needs are suspended, and finally deprives them of their lives in a “legal” way. With an analysis of the reminiscent narrator, the essay continues to argue that Ishiguro’s “narrative,” with its potential for resistance and protest, functions to uncover the hidden oppression in daily life and negate any political violence in a society.
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, biopower, biopolitics, life narrative
Huaan Wang. Hidden Oppression and “Narrative” as Resistance: A Biopolitical Reading of Never Let Me Go. International Journal of Frontiers in Sociology (2023), Vol. 5, Issue 3: 23-26. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJFS.2023.050305.
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