How did Josie get better? The AI Imitatio Christi of Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun

Abstract

Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun (2021) has within a brief timespan been extensively analyzed for artificial intelligence or sociopolitical issues, with some studies examining the ethics of AI-mediated religious faith. Less work has shed light on Klara's peculiarly formative Christian mindset, and how her faith valorizes service, charity, and forgiveness-as well as her pseudo-imitatio of Christ in her ultimate sacrifice of her fabric/body and PEG fluid/blood for Josie, culminating in Josie's recovery "miracle." While the novel is not expressly religious, this close reading of religious imagery and symbolism deserves to be accounted for as a means of further understanding Klara from a literary studies perspective.