Illusions of a Future : Ishiguro, Liberalism, Political Theology

Bradley, Arthur Humphrey (2018) Illusions of a Future : Ishiguro, Liberalism, Political Theology. Political Theology, 19 (7). pp. 638-642. ISSN 1462-317X

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Abstract

This article explores the fate of political theology in Kazuo Ishiguro’s speculative fiction Never Let Me Go (2005) and, by implication, in contemporary fiction more broadly. To pursue a reading of Christianity that extends from Hegel through Lacan to Žižek, the article argues that political theology’s future may perversely lie in a materialism emptied of all transcendental guarantees: political theology is the historically privileged master fantasy or illusion which reveals the fantastic or illusory status of our entire relation to the real in (neo-)liberal modernity. In conclusion, the article argues that Ishiguro’s fiction may thus be read less as a melancholic dystopian study in total ideological capture or surrender than as the representation of a state of immanent freedom beyond the power relations of (neo-)liberal subjectivity.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Political Theology
Additional Information:
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Political Theology on 29/08/2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1462317X.2018.1513189
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312
Subjects:
?? ishiguroŽižekbenjaminagambensociology and political sciencereligious studiesdiscipline-based research ??
ID Code:
127479
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
12 Sep 2018 14:00
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
29 Aug 2024 23:57