A Study Of Inoperative Community In Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go,the Buried Giant,and Klara And The Sun

The thesis looks into the dysfunctional communities which Kazuo Ishiguro portrays in his three novels–Never Let Me Go（2005）,The Buried Giant（2015）,and Klara and the Sun（2021）.In spite of the diversity in subject matters,the three novels are inherently connected with each other when it comes to their insights into the crisis of modern Western communities.Different from the traditional communities in which people are threaded together by spiritual bond,Ishiguro’s fictional communities are often paralyzed by forgetfulness,isolation,and hostility.In this sense,Ishiguro’s thinking is compatible with Nancy’s elucidation of inoperative community,which is as Nancy indicates,characteristic of modern western society.Thus,this thesis applies the French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy’s argument on inoperative community to the analysis of the three novels.Drawing from his perspective on the concepts including immanence,singularity and communication,the thesis examines the underlying causes of the dysfunctional communities in an attempt to show that inoperative community is nothing but a dead-end in today’s world.It concludes with a discussion about Ishiguro’s reflections on the looming crisis of modern western communities and his effort to find a way out of the plight.To be more specific,the body part of the thesis is divided into three chapters.Chapter One examines Ishiguro’s treatment of the resistance of immanence in The Buried Giant.The failure of this 5^th-century ethnic community echoes Nancy’s assertion of the impossibility to immanentize a community.Chapter Two studies the community of clones in Never Let Me Go from the perspective of singularity.The discussion makes it clear that interpersonal understanding is limited in this inoperative community of singular beings,whose communication is unable to move beyond the passive exposition of each other’s miserable death.Chapter Three offers a reading of Klara and the Sun in which the absence of communication goes rampant in this posthuman American society.By juxtaposing the human characters’taciturnity about their secrets and the android girl–Klara’s undaunted passion to communicate,this chapter suggests that the inoperative community of singular beings is far from being a boon for human beings in a world where technology is very likely to augment loneliness.The thesis comes to the conclusion that through the three novels published after 2005,Ishiguro seems to be telling us that,whilst the concept of traditional community is unlikely to be widely practiced in a more diversified and fluid world,it may not be a sensible choice to leave immanence fully behind.But how to integrate“open immanence”into modern communities to restore their vitality,that is a question unanswered by Nancy,and also a quandary of which Ishiguro believes westerners have to strive to find a way out.