Challenges of posthuman (co)existence in Klara and the Sun and After Yang

Abstract

This article aims to investigate challenges of the (co)existence between humans and posthumans represented in two contemporary works of fiction: the novel Klara and the Sun (2021), by Kazuo Ishiguro, and the film After Yang (2021), by Kogonada. Both works narrate the effects of the presence of posthuman individuals in human families. The present text will be organized considering two focus points: firstly, the way in which those works of fiction problematize notions of human and posthuman identities, especially taking into account questions such as memory, race and faith; secondly, the manners in which these technological beings are inserted into the context of human families. Thus, this article intends to demonstrate how Klara and the Sun and After Yang are works which test the limits of posthuman representation, questioning essentialist humanist paradigms.