『고도를 기다리며』: ‘시간성의 수사’가 빚어내는 ‘글쓰기’(Writing)로서의 ‘기다림’(Waiting)

Abstract

This paper examines the characteristics of time in Waiting for Godot based on Paul de Man’ “Rhetoric of Temporality”. The time in Waiting for Godot is not a linear one but a broken and ruptured one that can’t be perceived as the material and objective time by the characters of this play. For these reasons, this play has been viewed as a postmodern play in terms that it doesn’t have “center” and “Godot” is only “non-center” like “a” in “différance” concept of Derrida. However, there is central sign on the stage, which is a “willow” whose traditional biblical meaning is “Christ”. In this point, de Man’s concept of “allegory” is more effective to explain the nature of time in Waiting for Godot. By de Man, the allegorical sign can consist only in repetition of a previous sign with which it can never coincide, since it is of the essence of this previous sign or the origin sign to be pure anteriority. “Godot” in this play can be assumed as the “origin”, and the “repetition” in this paly is not the trace around the “non-center” but “authentic condition of human time”, which means the representation of sign can’t be coincided with the past, the origin. Therefore the “void” can be produced between “Godot” as the “origin” or “pure anteriority” and the sign or the representation of Godot. The subjects have to act fictional “writing” to fill out the void and to keep their existence, but the characters of this play have to act fictional behaviors, “waiting” for Godot. In this sense, “writing” in de Man’s “Rhetoric of Temporality” can be applied to “Waiting” for Godot on the stage.