are used to create the ‘ posthuman ,’ we must ask ourselves : are these individuals actually the most human of us all ?
Key words : Postmodernism , Posthumanism , Contemporary , Television , Identity , Bildungsroman
Introduction
The concept of the ‘ posthuman ’ is one often examined in works of postmodern literature and film , and this article examines explorations of the ‘ posthuman ’ in the bildungsroman , focusing on Kazuo Ishiguro ’ s 2005 novel Never Let Me Go and contemporary teen drama series Riverdale . In his work on the ‘ inhuman ’ and ‘ posthuman ’ worlds , Jean-Francois Lyotard explores the idea that , if capitalist society continues along its current trajectory , ‘ the experience of the human subject ...[ is ] being dissolved into the calculation of profitability .’ 30 As an extension of Lyotard ’ s work on humanity and profitability , this essay will consider a ‘ posthuman ’ character to be one whose body is treated merely as an object from which somebody else can gain what they desire .
This article explores texts who turn certain individuals into organ donors for those who can afford them , with both Never Let Me Go and Riverdale featuring institutions where those at the top profit from their role in organ donation schemes . Through their presentation of certain characters as semi-hegemonic organ donors for others , these texts explore the notion that through subtle manipulation and abuse of insecurities from a young age , societies could produce posthuman worlds in which some lives are considered more ‘ human ’ than others . This article posits that these ‘ posthuman ’ individuals are consistently removed from their sense of humanity by those around them , with this repeated dehumanisation necessary to convince the individuals themselves that their lives are not valuable . I argue that in these texts , leaders of organ donation schemes decide to use human bodies in a post-human way , claiming ownership of another body and manipulating the human inside it to consenting to the fate they have been assigned . The posthuman in Never Let Me Go and Riverdale is not born , but created from ordinary human beings with strong emotional and moral capabilities . Though the students of Never Let Me Go ’ s Hailsham have been created by science , their emotional responses to each other and the world , and hopes and dreams for the future demonstrate that they are not emotionally different to children in schools across the world . They are not , therefore , posthuman at birth because of their genetics , but are
30
Jean-Francois Lyotard , The Inhuman : Reflections on Time ( California : Stanford University Press , 1991 ), p . 10