박경리 "토지"에 나타난 죽음의 수사학

Abstract

This thesis deals with the types and the meanings of death in Park, Kyongni's novel, Toji(土地). Based on moral responsibility of death, the types of death in Toji can be categorized in natural death, death of disease, suicide, and homicide. The meanings and rhetoric characteristics of death on each category can be analyzed and derive the following conclusions:Firstly, unnatural death cases such as death of disease, suicide, and homicide are a lot more common than natural death cases on Toji. This feature primarily comes from the structural characteristics of Toji which progresses from stable social conditions to unstable social conditions. However, more fundamental rationale arises from Toji's rhetoric strategy to issue the moral discourse through various cases of death. Even though there is no explicit description on the meaning of death, the narrator raise the issue of moral responsibility and expand its unique moral discourse through many examples of death and individual cases. Secondly, the narrator has romantic attitude on suicide rather than making any moral criticism. Suicide is the last choice for the characters who want to solve their problems as the situation becomes critical. The narrator tends to describe those behaviors as the sanctity. Lastly, death becomes an ordinary routine by the endless cases of death. The readers encounter death, which is the utmost pain, in the middle of their life. Paradoxically, the readers obtain the strength to overcome the fear of death through these experiences. By clearly specifying the omnipresence of death, Toji makes the death an ordinary event and ultimately provides a hideout to overcome the fear of death.