자카리야 타미르와 프란츠 카프카의 작품 비교(Ⅰ): 존재론적 주제의식 ‘소외’를 중심으로

Abstract

In modern society, people are losing their unique characters and becoming more familiar with uniformity due to scientific technology, mass-media and pop culture designed for utility and convenience. Also they are losing their sense of value as well as the ability to think independently. As a result, they focus on the mechanization and industrialization of materials and are reduced to ones of means and tools which comprise of the mechanized society. People do not esteem and respect themselves anymore, and experience isolation through which every connection is deprived. Isolation appears when people are controlled passively, rather than when they control themselves, and are reduced to objects, rather than being subjects. Works of literature have appeared, which describe isolation of contemporary people vividly through complete identification with the seriousness of the alienation. The representative writers, as mentioned above, are Franz Kafka and Zakariyā Tāmir. They presuppose that everyone has an inner desire to escape from reality, and show that inner suffering due to isolation can happen to anyone. Isolation is universal, not confined to specific people in 『Metamorphosis』 and 『Sahīl al-Jawād al-`Abyad)』. In 『Metamorphosis』by Kafka, Gregor is a salesman who always visits people who are unwilling to see him. Even at home, he does not empty his mind of the work, but he experiences continuing isolation from work. In 『Sahīl al-Jawād al-`Abyad)』by Tāmir, a hero, “I” is isolated from the family and himself as Gregor did. In this situation, Gregor and “I” discover identities through metamorphosis and going out while facing a conflict of identity dissolution. Through the work, Kafka and Tāmir highlight the isolation caused by loss of humanity and undergo a realistic conflict through metamorphosed appearance. In other words, through the death and unrealistic Utopia of the heros of 『Metamorphosis』and 『Sahīl al-Jawād al-`Abyad)』, the authors make a serious consideration of indifference and isolation and give socity a scolding urge to discover realistic identities. 『Metamorphosis』and 『Sahīl al-Jawād al-`Abyad)』lead readers to construct their own world and to find the real condition. They try to reveal the actual existence of people who strive to find their identities while escaping from the modern society of isolation, mechanization and organized systems caused by the abuse of affluent and material cultures and the development of mechanized civilization.