2010년대 동물화자 소설에 나타난 인간/비인간종(種)의 착종(錯綜)-「묘씨생」의 자본주의 생태 속 새로운 관계성

Abstract

This paper explores how the borders between humans/nonhuman species are deconstructed today through the short stories featuring animal narrators in the 2010s. For this purpose, I critically review the four short stories “Fly, Odin,” “The Moomin is a Vegetarian,” “Today's Origin,” “Confession of Rango” in The Moomin is a Vegetarian and analyze Hwang Jeong-eun’s 2010 short story “Lives of Cats.” Appearance of animal tellers is the rhetorical strategies of anthropomorphism to evade the anthropocentrcism in representation, which are conducive to build the post-human/animal relationship. Above four short stories with animal narrators in The Moomin is a Vegetarian are meaningful in that they not only shed light on animals mobilized for war, animals recognized only as "eating" in meat-eating, healthy animals that have to end their lives at animal welfare farms, and wildlife displayed at zoos, but also criticise dichotomy between humans/animals. However, these narratives fail of the attempt of changing relationship between ‘superior’ human and ‘inferior’ nonhuman species. This is because in terms of methodology, by presuming dominating/dominant relationship between humans and animals or dichotomously contrasting the properties of vulnerability/cruelty. Eventually, they cannot escape from the dichotomy of animal/human and nature/culture. On the other hand, in “Lives of Cats”, deconstructs the dichotomy between humane human and nonhuman animals, as when a stray cat recounts how he/she and an old man survive by foraging for food in the capitalist environment, but live independently of each other. In addition, “Lives of Cats” differs from other animal novels and animal narrators’ short stories in that it simultaneously pays attention to the life of animals as a specific entity and the alienated humans. With effective use of rhetorical strategies of anthropomorphism, “Lives of Cats” shows possibility of the post-humans/animals even in the tragedy of capitalist environment. This study has significance in analyzing short stories with animal tellers in the context of critical humanism and pointing to the current state of animal discourse today. Through this, my work lays the foundation for academic discussion on fictional narratives with animal narrators and analyzed in detail “Lives of Cats” which has not been discussed in depth in the posthuman context. This study is able to find that it is impossible to find the basis of the existence of animals only in the phenomenon of familyization of companion animals, or to separate humans from the narrative where animals are unilaterally sacrificed in the reality where everything is capitalized and therefore animals and humans are inseparable. Next, the present analysis stresses animal narrators as anthropomorphic strategies is helpful to lower the boundaries between humans and animals. Finally, the old man’s “Becoming-Animals” caught by the cat’s eye of “Lives of Cats” requests readers to think of improving the quality of lives of all kinds of animals in “here and now” social surroundings.