톨스토이의 질병체험 내러티브: 『이반 일리치의 죽음』을 중심으로

Abstract

As finite beings, the history of mankind has been accompanied by the history of disease, and the diseased man has left a record of his frustration and overcoming through the story. A disease faced by a human is a kind of event that not only changes his body but also gives new value and meaning to the life of that being. This is a personal experience that takes place on the level of consciousness through the body, and this experience is expressed through the story of the sick person. The Illness Narrative is a record of the sick person's change of body and the time experience, and the impact of it on his identity as a whole. As a sick self, 'I' understand the experiential meaning of illness through narrative and restores and reestablishes the order and meaning of changed life. My suffering here is the essential element that newly records the self-narrative of life. Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a work that stands out in terms of illness experience narrative. This study approaches The Death of Ivan Ilyich as a narrative of Tolstoy's illness experience and death consciousness. The narrative of chaos caused by the suffering of illness and the process of self-reflection confronted before death are examined through Ivan's narrative. Although we borrowed the voice of a common man Ivan, in fact, this work is Tolstoy's own narrative. At the intersection of the work narrative and his self-narrative, Tolstoy poses the problems as a writer and a patient at the same time: How do the experience of disease and the suffering of death change the subject? What changes do the subject's time experience and self-identity undergo? What is the true meaning of the death that the great writer finds in his life? etc. Through these problems, Tolstoy becomes a reader of the story of Ivan and a physician who heals himself through his narrative works. Such a series of problems is considered in this study, which is the work of acknowledging the value and effectiveness of the illness narrative. As I can see through The Death of Ivan Ilyich illness lays a story. Unexpected illness, along with changes in the body, makes the sick self reflect on who he(she) is and how to live, and grows insight to rearrange the priorities of the remaining life. Suffering from illness experience and fear of death is the driving force that enables self-narrative of changed life. The suffering can experience the 'otherness of suffering' through narrative, and plan the consciousness and memory of death. Just as Ivan's illness and suffering in his works have made him realize the joy of a true life by looking back on his past life, Tolstoy expresses his own suffering and assures the value of a good life through Ivan's narrative. In this sense, this work can be read as a pathography of 'the sick Tolstoy'.