Poetry-reading in the end times?—ais, human states of being and the “overman” in Malaysian Chinese literature
Yale literature critic J. H. Miller’s rather prophetic claim that “the end of literature is at hand” draws attention to the impact of new creative writings, including algorithm texts. In 2021, the father of Ethical literary criticism, Chinese Prof. Nie Zhenzhao and his colleagues discussed extensive...
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Shanghai Normal University
2022
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| Online Access: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/44018/ https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85148110253&partnerID=40&md5=ec91476218576ff7e374c97f73ab8b39 |
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| Summary: | Yale literature critic J. H. Miller’s rather prophetic claim that “the end of literature is at hand” draws attention to the impact of new creative writings, including algorithm texts. In 2021, the father of Ethical literary criticism, Chinese Prof. Nie Zhenzhao and his colleagues discussed extensively the ethical conflicts and repercussions of scientific advancements that affect humans, artificial intelligence (AI), and post-humans. Against the phasing out of literature, Nie Zhenzhao instead argues for the incorporation and development of new literary forms, functions and values which have invariably emerged with the ubiquitious use of technology in the twenty-first century. In Southeast Asia, Malaysian Chinese writers started dealing with sci-fi and robotic themes in the literary periodical Chao Foon in 1979, triggering thought-provoking discourses on potential dilemmas and ethical issues involving one’s identity, consciousness and choice. This article examines the preeminence of AIs in Woon Swee Tin’s Tianlangxing Shixuan, defamiliarization of languages in Looi Yook Tho’s futuristic poetry “Moshiji Yuyan”, man’s alienation in Lew Yok Long’s science fiction “Beifen”, omnipresence of an AI female in King Ban Hui’s Rengong Shaonu and the ethical appeals of “overmans” in Ho Sok Fong’s Lake Like a Mirror. It highlights the tension between science and ethics in Malaysian Chinese literature and celebrates man’s own inner conscious attempts to form a better world and humane society, in the face of the creation and empowerment of increasingly invincible and amoral AIs by their insatiable human programmers. © 2022 Shanghai Normal University. All rights reserved. |
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