Posthuman Storytelling: Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Identity in Contemporary English Literature
Posthuman storytelling has emerged as a significant mode in contemporary English literature, reflecting growing cultural engagement with Artificial Intelligence, biotechnology, and ethical uncertainty. Literary texts increasingly depict artificial beings and posthuman subjects to question traditional ideas of identity, moral agency, and human superiority. This paper examines how posthuman narratives explore Artificial Intelligence, ethics, and identity through close textual analysis of Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me (2019) and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005). Drawing on posthumanist theory, the study argues that these novels present AI and bioengineered beings not as mere technological threats but as ethical mirrors that expose human responsibility, emotional vulnerability, and moral inconsistency. The paper demonstrates that posthuman storytelling redefines humanity as relational, ethically accountable, and interconnected rather than biologically exclusive. By situating literature within contemporary technological debates, this research highlights the role of fiction in shaping ethical understanding in an increasingly posthuman world.