NEVER LET ME FORGET: CRUEL EMPATHY IN KAZUO ISHIGURO’S NEVER LET ME GO

Abstract

This thesis interrogates the commonly held conception that empathy is an inherently positive trait by looking at the character, Kathy H., in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go. By looking at scholarly notion of attention, empathy, and Berlant's notion "cruel optimism," this paper argues that empathy is not an inherently positive force and that it can even serve to obscure a person's ability to perceive the larger social and political forces acting upon them, by causing them to myopically focus on the interpersonal. In the case of Kathy, empathy appears to hinder her ability to act in ways which might benefit herself and the plight of other clones.