기억을 통한 역사 다시쓰기: 이창래의 『제스처 인생』 분석
Rewriting History: A Reading of Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life
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This thesis aims to read A Gesture Life, a novel written by Chang-rae Lee, through Walter Benjamin's theory on memory. For this purpose, this study is divided into two parts: the first is understanding of Benjamin's theorization on memory and the other is a reading of A Gesture Life. Benjamin's key concept relevant to my reading of A Gesture Life is ‘involuntary memory,’ which, as opposed to voluntary memory, is the one suddenly brought to the present from the past through one's unconscious remembrance. Involuntary memory is forgotten from one's conscious and remembered only through one's deepest unconscious. With the retrieval of one's involuntary memory, the oppressed individual can rewrite one's subjective historical truth abjected and denied from the official historiography reflecting the perspective of the winners. Based on Benjamin's concept of involuntary memory, this study proposes that A Gesture Life rewrites the abjected histories of the two historical others, Kketaeh(a Korean comfort woman Hata met during the Pacific War)and Sunny(Hata's adopted mixed daughter born between a Korean prostitute and an American black GI) through the involuntary remembrance of the protagonist, Franklin Hata. Hata, a Japanese-American elderly man living in a wealthy village nearby New York, has attempted to forget two women in order to successfully assimilate into the mainstream society. However, as the novel progresses, they are suddenly summoned to the present through his involuntary remembrance, demanding an ethical and political action. In response to this demand, Hata makes a choice to leave his beloved home, a symbol of his assimilation. I interpret Hata's act as a declaration not to be assimilated.
Abstract
This thesis aims to read A Gesture Life, a novel written by Chang-rae Lee, through Walter Benjamin's theory on memory. For this purpose, this study is divided into two parts: the first is understanding of Benjamin's theorization on memory and the other is a reading of A Gesture Life. Benjamin's key concept relevant to my reading of A Gesture Life is ‘involuntary memory,’ which, as opposed to voluntary memory, is the one suddenly brought to the present from the past through one's unconscious remembrance. Involuntary memory is forgotten from one's conscious and remembered only through one's deepest unconscious. With the retrieval of one's involuntary memory, the oppressed individual can rewrite one's subjective historical truth abjected and denied from the official historiography reflecting the perspective of the winners. Based on Benjamin's concept of involuntary memory, this study proposes that A Gesture Life rewrites the abjected histories of the two historical others, Kketaeh(a Korean comfort woman Hata met during the Pacific War)and Sunny(Hata's adopted mixed daughter born between a Korean prostitute and an American black GI) through the involuntary remembrance of the protagonist, Franklin Hata. Hata, a Japanese-American elderly man living in a wealthy village nearby New York, has attempted to forget two women in order to successfully assimilate into the mainstream society. However, as the novel progresses, they are suddenly summoned to the present through his involuntary remembrance, demanding an ethical and political action. In response to this demand, Hata makes a choice to leave his beloved home, a symbol of his assimilation. I interpret Hata's act as a declaration not to be assimilated.
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