기억과 망각의 변증법: 치유의 글쓰기 - 장 지로두의 연극을 대상으로

Abstract

Memory and amnesia, which are hot topics of 21st century literature, form the key ideas when one attempts to understand the works of Giraudoux - from his work Siegfried to Amphitryon 38, Ondine and Judith. Not only do these motifs have an influence on how his plays are performed, they are the elements that reveal a slice of Giraudoux's thought life and his worldview. Giraudoux's plays, which are the objects of this study, mostly deal with amnesia rather than memory. The amnesia motif expresses his wishes for reconciliation and harmony between Supreme Being and man, man and man, man and woman, opressor and victim, and the past and the present. But the amnesia Giraudoux portrays does not just signify the loss of one's memory, but a positive and unique idea of a past that has yielded its importance to the present. Especially, in Giraudoux's first play Siegfried, the protagonist has had a memory loss and has forgotten who he is. The play focuses on the process of recovering his memory. His ex-girlfriend Geneviève, who has come to a dead end in her life the moment her boyfriend disappeared, eventually takes off the weight of her past and gets healed. She acknowledges Forestier as Siegfried, Siegfried ‘merges’ with Forestier and regains his lost identity. Not only does Giraudoux emphasize history in his plays in order to convey to us the idea of ‘amnesia for remembering’ and ‘remembering for healing’, he never forgets to include mythology, fantasy in playmaking, and the joy of great scenes. In short, Giraudoux focuses on the motifs of amnesia and memory in his plays, and shows a paradox where the future can unfold and amnesia can be healed only when there is harmony between the past and the present.