Nonhuman Narrative In Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me

Ian Mc Ewan is a highly acclaimed British writer.Machines Like Me,a novel written by him published in 2019,is set in a fictional highly technologically-advanced London in the 1980 s.The novel creates the image of Adam,a highly humanoid yet nonhuman artificial intelligence robot,and describes Adam’s attempt to integrate into the human world.It expresses the reflection on human nature,the elucidation of human-machine relationship,as well as the concern about how the development of technology affects society.Based on the current nonhuman turn in the field of humanities and social sciences,with David Herman’s narratology beyond the human as the theoretical perspective,this thesis systematically analyzes the nonhuman narrative in the novel from three aspects:narrative construction,narrative strategy,and narrative connotation,so as to probe into the ways and effects of the narrative in breaking through the anthropocentric bias and in exploring a de-anthropocentric future.The thesis is divided into five chapters.The first chapter introduces Ian Mc Ewan and Machines Like Me,literature review at home and abroad,the theoretical basis,the significance and the framework of this thesis.The second,third and fourth chapters form the main body of this thesis.The second chapter analyzes the nonhuman narrative construction in the novel from three aspects: Charlie’s self-narrative,Adam’s actions,and their cross-species transformation and identification,finding that in the narrative construction,robots as nonhuman entities are placed in a position of equal and mutual influence with humans.The third chapter demonstrates the three narrative strategies adopted by Mc Ewan to construct the nonhuman narrative,including nonhuman internal focalization,counterfactual history,and daily science fiction,and analyzes their effects.Then,based on the previous two chapters,the fourth chapter further reveals the connotations of the nonhuman narrative in the novel.Under the perspective of transhumanism,it not only explores the expansion of the definition of “mankind” and the strengths and flaws in human nature,but also investigates AI robotic technology’s influence on shaping the society’s outlook on science,as well as the influence on social labor.The fifth chapter is a summary of this thesis.Through a comprehensive analysis of the nonhuman narrative in the novel,this thesis draws the following conclusions: The nonhuman narrative in the novel explores how humans can re-recognize the status of themselves and nonhuman others,the relationship between humans and nonhumans,and how nonhumans construct their subject identity.In addition,it is indicated that the nonhuman narrative in the novel can reflect human attitudes towards the nonhuman world,challenge traditional notions of what the concept of humanity means,promote empathy and understanding between different forms of life and consciousness,and play an important role in shaping our own cultural narrative.At the same time,the nonhuman narrative in the novel provides us with the following insights: The rapid development of artificial intelligence and robotic technology will inevitably pose challenges to humanity.In order to better cope with these challenges,humans should face up to the subject status of nonhuman entities,e.g.robots,and should get along with them.