스파크의 『의도를 갖고 배회하기』에 나타난 실재의 재현과 허구(화)

Abstract

Spark believes that a novel, a product of an author's imagination, is a “lie”(fiction) which embodies a kind of truth. This paper aims to trace such a relationship between representation of reality and its fictionalization (fictionality) as revealed in one of her major works, Loitering with Intent. Fleur, a mouthpiece of Spark as well as the heroine of this novel, introduces other characters' memoirs as well as her own first novel, Warrender Chase, in this novel which is also a kind of Fleur's memoir. Though these memoirs are supposed to be the real records of facts, they are actually transformed and even distorted by Fleur who does not uphold frankness as the essential element in autobiography writing: she adds some invented episodes to other characters' memoirs, while maintaining that she wrote only facts in her own memoir, Loitering with Intent. This leads us to suspect whether Fleur's memoir, Loitering with Intent, itself could be a kind of fiction created through Fleur's imaginative transformation. Such a suspicion is engendered and confirmed by the fact that people around Fleur imitate and repeat the actions and remarks of the characters in her first novel, Warrender Chase, while the incidents described in Warrender Chase actually are happening to them. Thus, we can't tell if Warrender Chase is a model for Loitering With Intent or Loitering With Intent is for Warrender Chase. In a word, readers come to find themselves confronted with a confusing world where a distinction between fiction and reality is blurred. From this does derive the fact that a fiction is a "lie" as well as an embodiment of truth which cannot escape the process of fictionalization in its representation.