포스트휴먼 소재 아동청소년SF에 드러난 몸의 상상력 -『마지막 레벨 업』을 중심으로-

Abstract

Humans are beings with vulnerability in an ontological aspect. Vulnerability refers to the possibility of being hurt physically or mentally in real-life situations. Children are more vulnerable than adults, and the decisive cause is their bodies. However, the development of cutting-edge science and technology shows the prospect of being liberated from the vulnerability of children's bodies. Here, the issue of the body's vulnerability acts as a driving force for new imagination about the body in SF narratives. In particular, posthumans who appear in children's and adolescent science fiction are entities that fundamentally shake the horizon of imagination regarding the body. By using artificial intelligence and virtual reality technologies, posthumans can live in various ways by manipulating digital data and living in their own bodies, without being confined to physical space. The problem is that in the work, the development of cutting-edge science and technology does not solve the problem of vulnerability originating from the child's body, but rather pushes the child's life into a more vulnerable situation. In order to demonstrate this point, we discussed the body's imagination, focusing on The Last Level Up. As a result of the discussion, the discussion was summarized as ‘a digital body deprived of all autonomy in life’, ‘a body separated from its own memories’, and ‘a body as a digital zombie that has lost temporality’.