“Not Properly Human”: Literary and Cinematic Narratives about Human Harvesting*

Abstract

Summary In this essay the manner in which literary and cinematic narratives articulate the issues surrounding human harvesting and organ transplants is discussed. The focus is on recent works of four internationally known artists: the novels Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro, Excursion to Tindari (2006) by Andrea Camilleri, In stede van die liefde [In Lieu of Love] (2005) by Etienne van Heerden and the film Dirty Pretty Things directed by Stephen Frears in 2002. A shadowy world is depicted where illegal trafficking tests the border between human and inhumane in terms of moral, physical and socio-political realities. At the same time these narratives are also love stories, revealing the many faces of love surfacing at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The organisation of spatial patterns and the articulation of the conflict experienced in multicultural and immigrant societies are some of the meaningful literary devices and motifs developed in all four “texts”. Whilst the genre, cultural context and narrative tone differ considerably in each narrative, there appears to be a remarkable similarity of subject matter and theme and the local and current events compellingly become integrated with a global, almost timeless discourse.