Neoliberal Humanism: Never Let Me Go and the Value of the Humanities

This essay addresses the neoliberal turn in the humanities through Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005 novel Never Let Me Go, which describes a world in which human clones have been created for the purpose of harvesting their organs. The clones, at once commodified and rendered politically complacent, operate within an inescapable market logic that enforces their subjugation while preserving life for those privileged enough to receive their organs. The well-intentioned humanities education that these clones receive confirms their humanity, yet ultimately preserves the administrative structures that ensure their domination. Complicit in the dehumanizing market systems into which they have been relegated, the humanities in Never Let Me Go provide no meaningful ways of contesting the broader structures of exploitation and extraction that preserve the status quo. Forever looking inward, the clones enter the world with a deep understanding of humanity, yet no way of resisting the systems that imperil it. Ishiguro's novel thus furnishes a space for understanding how the humanities function within contemporary neoliberal contexts, which are simultaneously eroding the foundations of humanistic inquiry and mobilizing that mode of inquiry to advance neoliberal rationale.