한국 혼합현실 서사에 나타난 ‘디지털 사이보그’ 표상 연구－웹소설을 중심으로－

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the imagination of mixed reality spaces and digital cyborg in Korean web fiction. Here, mixed reality is a term encompassing the concepts of virtual reality and augmented reality, and refers to virtual continuum of several stages. And digital cyborg refers to the subject appearing in the mixed reality. In other words, it is a hybrid of a machine and an organism, and is a representation of a body that is digitally mediated, expanded, and improved. In chapter 2, I examined the virtual reality space and the shape of the digital cyborg as its subject, focusing on the “The moonlight sculpture”. Here, the cyborg, a digitally mediated body, emerged as a special subject that perceives and improves oneself through numbers. And virtual reality was represented as an alternative space capable of statistical reduction of human beings. At this time, improving the statistical self by administering labor has emerged as a key theme of the narrative. In chapter 3, I examined the augmented reality space and the representation of digital cyborg as its subject, focusing mainly on “Level Up Alone”, “The Infinite Level Up in Moorim”, and “The God of Cooking”. Thus, it was confirmed that augmented reality is appearing as ‘unreality superimposed on reality’ as a ‘strange illusion’ that causes subjects to experience heterogeneous reality. We also looked at how the ‘upgrade’ of the digitally-mediated body appears as a abnormality[bug] in the social system. These narratives showed reality recognition that it is difficult to transcend society’s hierarchical structure without being abnormal. Through these works, it was confirmed that the mixed reality and digital cyborg are both appearing as utopian alternatives that overcome the limitations of the real world. In other words, it was examined that mixed reality is a space where the subject can grow according to effort unlike the real world and digital cyborg appears as a body capable of performing social mobility impossible in the real. At this time, mixed reality and cyborg are not simply reduced to one of the most powerful elements of popular culture, but can be understood as creatures that develop a critical imagination of social reality. In other words, the readers of the mixed reality narrative are not just consuming the materials of popular culture familiar to them, but support the critical imagination of the real world.