최은영의 <밝은 밤>에 나타나는 대화와 공감의 생태윤리적 고찰

Abstract

Choi Eun-young's Bright Night establishes weak beings who are otherized under the social hierarchy as characters, and emphasizes that what is important in relationships is not superiority but interconnectedness. From that perspective, this article focuses on the dialogue and empathy of Bright Night from the perspective of ecological ethics. Here, two key contents are noted. First, deep empathy is achieved through the narrative of chronotopes discovered in a given time and space. Second, the discovery of a relational self that attempts to explore the world, others, and oneself in relationships. This expands the possibility of empathizing with and caring for the suffering of others as a dialogical subject. Bright Night emphasizes that dialogue and empathy can further elevate the responsibility of care as an ecological relational ethics. In particular, by reading the empathy of the novel’s ‘becoming other’ from the perspective of ecological ethics that promotes horizontal dialogue interaction, we confirmed the point of ecological care that Bright Night resonates with today’s concerns.