재현 질서의 전복과 시뮬라크르의 열림—헨리 제임스의 「진짜」

Abstract

This essay analyzes how Henry James’s short story ‘The Real Thing’ opens up a new way of seeing beyond the Western tradition of representational art, drawing on Gilles Deleuze's critique of Platonism and discussion of simulacra. Through the figure of a painter-narrator in ‘The Real Thing,’ James explores the substance of the idea of the ‘real,’ the power it exerts over the way we see the world and things, and the ways in which it has been used to construct a rigid order through the representational arts. This exploration, in effect, brings forward a fundamental skepticism and questions as to the Western tradition of representation, which began in Greece and remained strong through the Renaissance until the mid-19th century. Dwelling on such analysis, this study argues that ‘The Real Thing’ rejects the Western tradition of representation which is based on the ideological hierarchy of original-copy-simulacrum and suggests the possibility of its subversion, and furthermore anticipates a simulacral world. To this end, I first examine the ways James reveals the problems of the tradition of representation, in which ‘The Real Thing’ presents a confrontation between ‘real’ and ‘make-believe’ or ‘good image’ and ‘bad image,’ and relate it to the European modernist art movement that James experienced in the late 19th century. In conclusion, I argue that James leads us to a new way of seeing by exposing the limitations and contradictions of the representational art tradition in ‘The Real Thing.’