허스턴의 『 그들의 눈은 신을 보고 있었다 』: 제니의 서사욕망과 이타주의 윤리

Abstract

This study aims to prove that Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is driven by Janie’s desire for narration of her life story where she exposes her uniqueness of identity to Phoeby, her necessary other, to be recognized as a narratable self. In her story Janie manifests her life not to be reduced to an example of historical tragedy; instead she emphasizes her uniqueness of life. Janie chooses to narrate her life only to Pheoby another unique existent who is in constitutive relation with Janie, not to unspecified individuals. Adriana Cavarero emphasizes the significance of narrative relations between the self and the necessary other which provides shifts towards an “altruistic ethics of relationality.” The ethic allows the self to recognize the aspect of an identity which is intertwined with other lives and to find possibility to live together without being dissolved into political equality. Janie’s narration enables her to recognize the meaning of her own life, and she desires her narratable self to be retold by Pheoby who would weave her own life story besides Janie’s. Hurston exhibits possible shifts towards the altruistic ethics, through quilt-like narratives of Janie and Pheoby, which recognize reciprocal unique and unrepeatable identity of other existent and find a scene where the interaction with the other is infinite.