Body Writing and Identity Construction of Clones in Ishiguro Kazuo’s Science Fiction Novel Never Let Me Go

Abstract

Never Let Me Go is a science fiction novel written by Japanese-English author Kazuo Ishiguro (1954-) as a representative Nobel Prize winner in literature. This work has attracted a wide range of attention to the ethical issues related to the heated topic of cloning. The novel focuses on the body writing, through which Ishiguro portrays the clone’s physical health conditions, organ donation, existence of soul, and ultimately, the clone’s demise, in order to depict the difficulties the clones face in finding their place in human society. Such a profound exploration represents one of the major ethical issues coexisting with the anxiety caused with the cloning technology throughout human life.