DYSTOPIAN ELEMENTS IN THE N OVEL KLARA AND THE SUN BY K. ISHIGURO

The works by Kazuo Ishuguro, a modern British writer of Japanese origin, play a significant part in British literature of the early 21st century. He has written eight novels, and each of them in terms of genre can be defined as a synthetic work. This article aims to describe the dystopian elements and their function in the newest novel by K. Ishiguro Klara and the Sun (2021). We suppose this work, as well as his novel Never Let Me Go (2005), can’t be defined strictly as a typical dystopia: it doesn’t contain features dominant in this genre, which in our opinion are: the idea of power, the theme of an authoritarian state, and the conflict between an individual and a state system. Therefore we suggest the novel Klara and the Sun to be a philosophical novel with dystopian elements that create the circumstances necessary to discuss philosophical problems. On the grounds of existing genre canon and dystopian conception of S.G. Shishkina we have revealed several dystopian elements used by the author. Firstly, the image of the main heroine, Klara, who is a robot-android, has characteristics of dystopian protagonist. Secondly, social hierarchy in the world described by Ishiguro is based on the motif of biological standardization typical of the genre (“lifted” and “unlifted” children). Thirdly, the novel plot depends considerably on the problem of progress of science and material values, and regress of spiritual ones. Further study of genre specifics of this novel would contribute to a more detailed analysis of Kazuo Ishuguro’s works as a whole.