The Incarnation of Sex and Soul in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

• Main Authors: Lien-Pei Lu, 陸聯沛
• Other Authors: Pei-Yun Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/xkwt47

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 英文學系碩士班 === 103 === The thesis focuses on Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and attempts to figure out how a modern life seeks art of living while power-knowledge, dualism, and ideology are working together. The thesis also discovers that the distribution of power-knowledge, the definition in dualistic structure, and the formation of ideology will decide humans’ sex and soul. The thesis is divided into three main parts. In chapter one, it is going to focus on the development of power-knowledge and its influence to human beings. The institutionalized society expands its influence by distributing its power. Knowledge consolidates the expansion and distribution of power. In the process of distributing power-knowledge, social and political mechanisms are produced, and define and re-define their meanings. The thesis terms this situation as the violence of language since it can’t sustain its reasonability. In chapter two, a dichotomized society will narrow the meaning of a life and eliminate the differences among individuals. Asking whether having soul or not is the way to judge bio-power of an individual and decrease the ability of thinking and questioning. The thesis also discovers that artwork making can evoke these abilities, inspire more ideas, and develop “the care of self.” In chapter three, the thesis is going to analyze the aim of the ideology and how an individual develops individuality while ideology is trying to brainwash humans’ mind. Although ideology simplifies knowledge, it also impedes an individual from activating thinking and manipulates the individual. That is to say, ideology can probably distort humans’ memory, recognition, and experience. As a result, interpersonal relationship becomes unsteady since there is only utilitarianism among people rather than mutual trust. Therefore, drawing back mutual trust, respect and love can help a modern life find the answer.