전염병의 서사와 가상공동체

Abstract

Since 1990s the narratives of outbreak, such as Ebola virus, have frequently appeared in the field of journalism, fictions, nonfictions, and films in the United States. This phenomenon is noteworthy, particularly after the outbreak of HIV/AIDS and subsequent paranoia. The Americans' faith in science, especially medical science, collapsed in the aftermath of AIDS outbreak. The outbreak narratives reflect the anxiety of the Americans as well as their desire to rehabilitate their faith in medical science. The discourses on epidemics, which had been quiescent since 1950s, have been erupting along with the heightened interest in emerging infections. The microbes who know no national boundaries travel around the world more easily as the globalization becomes accelerated. In tracing the trajectories of the epidemics and the microbes, the narratives of outbreak make it visible as to who meets whom and what kinds of social contacts are formed along the invisible communities. Benedict Anderson's idea of 'imagined communities' can be a useful tool in understanding the outbreak narratives. Anderson argues that the nation is an imagined community which exists only in the people's mind as an image of communion, even though each member of the nation does not know each other. In a similar way, the narratives of outbreak implant memories of epidemics inside the imagined communities. The outbreak narratives reveal the paradox of conflicting pulls of nationalism and globalization. If the members of the communities are strongly united in the face of the impending catastrophe, the ambiguous concept of imagined communities can be easily dissolved in the globalized realities of the world. The members of the nation can profit in accordance with their intensity of their belongings. In that sense, the stranger/carrier is an indispensible agent in bringing forth the health and growth of the communities. As a vector for carrying unfamiliar microbes and genes, the stranger/carrier shows how the communities are being integrated and reshaped in spite of the sacrifice of their members.