로이스 로리의 『기억 전달자』 4부작에 나타난 인간 소외의 양상과 윤리적 도전

Abstract

In this paper, we suggest analyzing not just the first novel of the Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry but the whole series including Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son with special focus on different forms of human alienation. The issue of ethical challenges will be discussed with regard to the question of how to overcome those alienations. In The Giver Quartet, the author draws attention to the following basic contradiction that is at work in dystopian or utopian societies: in the constitutive principle of a community is inscribed a subversive moment that can put the latter in danger. The contradiction in The Giver lies in the fact that the utopian space of eternal present that is opened up through closing the door to the memory of the past paradoxically appeals to this memory. And the contradiction in Gathering Blue can be explained in the following sense: preventing the access to the future for the purpose of maintaining the oppressed status quo of being taken captive by the past necessarily calls for the help of artists with ability to see the future. The contradiction in Messenger as well as in Son is bound up with the fact that the emancipation space is opened up by double negation, for instance, neither the civilization nor the barbarianism, is inevitably exposed to excessive openness and this excessiveness risks closing that space. Placing their heros in the heart of those contradictions, the author challenges them to think ‘beyond’ and act concretely. Our analysis focuses ultimately on ways in which their ethical challenges historize unhistorical societies, and politicize ethical challenges.