Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / The Algorithmic Mirror: Artificial Intelligence and the Transformation of the Protagonist in Contemporary Fiction

Full text (.pdf)
Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2026 19 (10)
Authors
Valkova, Julia E.
Contact information
Valkova, Julia E. : Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Russian Federation); ; ORCID: 0000-0001-5231-4720
Keywords
artificial intelligence; post-humanism; protagonist transformation; contemporary fiction; algorithmic mirror; distributed agency; Kazuo Ishiguro; Ian McEwan; Becky Chambers
Abstract

This article examines the transformation of the literary protagonist in contemporary fiction through the lens of artificial intelligence (AI) characters, arguing that modern narratives utilize AI not as mere antagonists or plot devices, but as sophisticated epistemological instruments that deconstruct anthropocentrism and redefine human subjectivity. The study analyzes three seminal works, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me, and Becky Chambers’s a Psalm for the Wild-Built, employing a critical post-humanist theoretical framework rooted in the works of D. Haraway, R. Braidotti, N. K. Hayles, and K. Barad. The article concludes that contemporary AI fiction articulates a post-human reality where human exceptionalism is systematically dismantled, and psychological coherence increasingly depends on abandoning rigid dualisms in favor of recognizing our entangled existence with the entities we create

Pages
2074–2082
EDN
FCFVHW
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/160171

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