오션 부옹의 『글래드니스의 황제』에 나타난 주변화된 주체들의 새로운 공동체 형성의 가능성과 한계

Abstract

Vietnamese American writer Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness presents the possibility of a new form of community through Hai, a gay Vietnamese American man, and Grazina, a Lithuanian immigrant abandoned by her family due to dementia. In this work, the author portrays how Grazina and Hai come together to form a unique community of care and mutual support. Hai learns the spirit of communal living at HomeMarket—a restaurant and economic collective—and applies this understanding to improve his relationship with Grazina. However, when the realities represented by Lukas and the HomeMarket headquarters intervene, this fragile community quickly collapses. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the limitations of the ideal community envisioned by Vuong.