이창래의 <원어민>에 나타난 한국계 미국인의 정체성: 문화적 차이와 잡종성

Abstract

In Chang-rae Le's Native Speaker, the protagonist, Henry Parkexperiences an identity crisis as a Korean-American. Henryas aAmericanized second generation of a Korean imigrant, wants toasimilate to the dominant midle-clas white culture and reject Koreanaspects of his identity inherited from his parents. Though e is eager toreject his Korean inheritance/identity and identify himself with whiteAmericans, he comes to recognize his Korean heritage in himself. In thissense, Henry Park does not belong to neither the Korean or the American. In this identity crisis, Henry Park's Korean-American identity is unstableand indeterminate. In the state of indeterminacy, Henry tries to form hisnew identity, that is, 'hybridity,' which is diferentiated from the fixed andstereotyped identity of the Korean or the American. Henry'sevolving senseof his new hybrid identity is largely shaped by his curent and recolectedinteractions with a host of significant others, his wife Lelia, his own father,the Filipino psychiatrist Luzan, and the Korean American politician JohnKwang. The term 'hybridity', originated from the theoretical exposition ofHomi K. Bhabha to emphasize the mutualities and negotiations acros thecolonial division and move beyond the binary opositions, would be anapropriate notion to explain the identity formation of Henry Park in thenovel. The hybridization of diferent cultures opens up ossibilities torevise and overcome the stable identity of Korean or American. In theproces of hybridization, the identity of Henry Park who is a'Korean' and 'American' turns out to be unstable and indeterminate, and be positioned in the repeated reconstruction.