Anthropomorphic Artifacts and Literary Fiction.

On Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novel Klara and the Sun and E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Story The Sandman

Abstract

The essay relates Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun from 2021 to E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story The Sandman from 1816. Both literary texts address the effect of anthropomorphic artifacts on human characters within the narrated world. The essay elaborates on the extent to which Ishiguro’s novel references Hoffmann’s narrative. It becomes clear that both literary texts question the boundary between human and thing without dissolving this boundary. With their very different narrative styles, both texts involve the reader and allow participation in the humanization of the anthropomorphic artifacts.