치매 소설에 투영된 치매자의 주체적인 삶

Abstract

Human life goes on a continuous line of past, present, and future. It is just ‘memory’ to maintain this continuity. Therefore, it is impossible to live a human life without the basic memories needed for self-awareness and self-control. The problem is not mere memory, but a state of forgetting the connection of life, that is the case of dementia. In general, People with dementia often do not recognize reality because of 'oblivion,' so it is difficult to live their own life, and therefore the possibility that they will have such a longing is excluded. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dementia patients' ability to lead a subjective life and to reveal their right to live their own life through texts dealing with dementia. The texts examined in this paper are "A Hallucinatory Butterfly", "Unbearable Secret", and "In Sight of the Lake" that contemporary writers, Park Wan-seo and Alice Monro deal with as a discourse on dementia. Being written by the two writers in their old age, these works are closer to the lives of people with dementia in that they have their own experiences and concerns in their gaze of dementia. These works are based on the fact that even in the state of dementia, the characters pursue the subjective life in their own lives. These works seek to find alternatives to the subjective values ​​of human life, human dignity, and a more desirable life environment through their collective life stories, which include the subjective will and aspirations of individuals with dementia. The dementia discourse in fiction which captures the efforts of people with dementia who are the first persons in their own lives, who are not losing their identities, and who are dignified, includes the messages to be prepared and engraved in the age of unprecedented aging.