과학과 문학 사이: 신경다양성과 뉴로 소설 『에코 메이커』

Abstract

This study starts with the observation that not a few neuronovels published for the last twenty years have shared their understanding of the neurologically disabled with the neurodiversity movement. Along with this premise, it stresses the possibility of neuronovels to extend the horizon of novel genre, contrary to those criticisms that neuronovels prove the limit of the novel genre in this scientific age. This contention is set forth through the three chapters. The first chapter deals with the emergence of neuronovels and their criticism. The second one summarizes the development and definition of neurodiversity movement and the criticism of medical circles against neurodiversity. Finally, the third chapter seeks the point where the imagination of neuronovels intersects the ideology of neurodiversity through the analysis of Capgras Syndrome represented in Richard Powers’ neuronovel, The Echo Maker. The point of this study is that despite the various comments on neurobiology and brain science concerning Capgras Syndrome in the novel, the focus of The Echo Maker is not on neurological disorder. As the novel develops, Capgras Syndrome, pivot of the plot, extends itself as a metaphor and signifier of the contemporary American insensitivity. The novel implicates that not only Mark, the actual patient, but all the major characters who act out of self-delusion and the instinct of self-preservation are sufferers of Capgras Syndrome. Thus, the existing distinction between the normal and the disordered becomes invalid; neurological syndrome is unable to become a measure which distinguishes the abnormal from the normal. In this context, The Echo Maker enhances the ideology of neurodiversity movement which, advocating the inherent value of each individual and the ethics of care, embraces the neurologically diverse as the normal members of society.