로렌스의 유령 이야기: 「국경선」과 「유쾌한 유령들」을 중심으로

Abstract

Focusing on “The Border-Line” and “Glad Ghosts”, this paper aims to examine and reevaluate D. H. Lawrence’s ghost stories that have attracted relatively little critical attention. Lawrence’s ghost stories were written in the late phase of his literary career when the images of death were frequent in his short stories. Two overlapping backgrounds are behind this: the First World War was synonymous with death, and the devastated post world-war European countries were all engulfed by the tide of death; and around the same time, suffering from tuberculosis, Lawrence had to face the shadow of death hung upon his own life. Lawrence’s ghost stories were also inspired by the English ghost story tradition which achieved great popularity between 1850 and 1930. However, Lawrence radically deconstructed the fundamental hypothesis of this genre where the ambiguity of the ghost, that is, whether it really exists or it’s just a symptomatic phenomena of an unsettled and disturbed psyche, plays an pivotal role in arousing tension and suspense. Most of Lawrentian ghosts return without giving fear or suspense and with the purpose of fulfilled relationship between them and the living people who expect and even wait for their return. Both “The Border-Line” and “Glad Ghosts” partly fall a little short of the principles of successful short story such as condensed atmosphere, economy in narrative, dramatic climax, and final reversal. However, “The Border-Line” presents a new concept of ghost, and “Glad Ghosts” goes beyond the spirit-body dichotomy and continues to search for more complex layers in the meaning of the ghost. Creating a subtle “varied tone” in the narrative, and interweaving the ghost theme with other realistic or exotic motifs like class and swapping, “Glad Ghosts” is highly probably an attractive Lawrentian ghost story.