이양지 「유희」에 나타나는 미끄러짐의 궤적 ―화자인 ‘나’를 중심으로―

Abstract

Lee Yang-ji’s Yuhi has been extensively studied in postcolonial and diaspora criticism. However, a unique aspect of Yuhi who’s narrator is a Korean woman referred to as “I” has been overlooked in previous studies. This paper focuses on the narrator “I,” and reads Yuhi as ““I”’s Yuhi.” What becomes visible through this reading is the narrator, “I,” who has been melancholic due to her being subject to heterosexist norms as a “woman,” and this melancholia is resolved through her encounter with Yuhi. This paper reads the inexpressible emotions that “I” portrays toward Yuhi as invisible desires and Yuhi as a metaphorical “closet”, in the Sedgiwickian sense, for “I.” Furthermore, it can be observed that the Yuhi was depicted by “I” as a non-normative queer that traverses not only the boundaries between Korea and Japan but also various norms. What is important here is not that Yuhi is queer, but that the narrator ‘I,’ who monopolizes the narrative, views Yuhi as queer. Unlike in the past, when “I,” as a native, tried to enforce Yuhi to conform to norms, “I” sees Yuhi as deviating from the norms. In the past, “I” who imposed norms on Yuhi was gendered as male, while Yuhi whose body was infiltrated and regulated by these norms, experienced shame in her female-gendered body. However, after Yuhi leaves, “the bundle of paper” left as a gift and the “small lump” that formed within “I”’s body, signify its transformation. This transformation is possible because their relationship was not mediated by the enforcement of norms, and it confirms that the deeply personal intimacy with Yuhi enabled this change.