혼종성의 역동성: 마샬의 『갈색 소녀, 갈색 사암집』과 실코의 『의식』, 그리고 리의 『만조의 바다 위에서』를 중심으로

Abstract

This study analyzes Marshall's Brown Girl, Brownstones, Silko's Ceremony and Lee's On Such a Full Sea using the framework of Homi K. Bhabha's ideas of the translational space of hybridity. It is true that some critics rightly criticize Bhabha's theory as having limitation in considering the present time in which national cultures are being weakened or incorporated into the culture logic of transnational capitals. Nevertheless, Bhabha's third space of hybridity can be very useful in correcting the mistaken logic of cultural imperialism, which states that the culture of the center will dominate that of the periphery. Bhabha's idea of the translational space of hybridity is to rethink the unconscious structure of postcolonial discourses and deconstruct the one-sided domination by colonizers within colonialist discourses. The young heroine, Selina in Brown Girl, Brownstones, confronts the cultural conflicts between Barbados and New York and loses her identity. As she matures, she tries to establish her own self-identity as a Caribbean-American and a black female living in America through understanding her parents' generation and fusing the two distinct cultures. The cure for Tayo’s broken self caused by cultural collisions between the White and Native American in Ceremony is to realize cultural hybridity and to learn to adapt and alter ancient traditions to fit modern situations. Silko asserts that the tribal cultures and values may be adapted and transformed by cultural exchanges and the hybridization of different cultures. In Lee's On Such a Full Sea, the future of human life doesn’t lie in the world of Charter District, which has absolute wealth and economic affluence, but in the translational space of hybridity which is opened, has boundless imagination itself, and produces new meaning like an impromptu and spontaneous mural painting. These three novels provide the readers with the opportunities to explore various manifestations of intercultural, interethnic and interclass dynamics. In conclusion, this paper tries to appropriate a positive sense of Bhabha's ideas of the translational space of hybridity, to investigate the protagonists’ reactions to racial prejudice, different cultures, and ruling class, and to examine those protagonists’ attempts to achieve harmony with other races, cultures and classes in that space. Marshall, Silko and Lee present the possibility of reconciliation and coexistence among different races, ethnic cultures, and socioeconomic classes in terms of cultural hybridity.