다문화소설에 나타난 호명과 주체

Abstract

The population change in the number of immigrants who dreamed of a better life in the early 20th century increased the ethnic, racial, and cultural multiplicity in the latter half of the 20th century. In the 21st century, such a change that accelerates internationalization and openization is constantly growing the ratios of emigrant workers, women of international marriage, children of mixed race and multicultural families. As if reflecting these phenomena, the creation of multi-cultural novels is becoming quick in action. This manuscript aims to analyze multicultural novels on the basis of Louis Pierre Althusser’s theories of interpellation and subjection. It will investigate how Koreans in multicultural novels name immigrants and what influence the appellation has on their life. Put directly, the unconscious ideology that exists in the Korean society oppresses immigrants to prevent them from becoming subjection in their life. The confusion in the identity of immigrants seems to be caused by their individual tendencies in some sense; but it is also generated by the country they emigrated to the society of which wields an ideological oppression over individuality or subjection of the immigrants. In addition, there is a variety of hegemony issues that is buttressed by nationalism, political belief, colonial rule, criminal law, religion, patriarchy, family, cynicism, violence, and so on. Here what operates the unconscious oppression is none other than ‘appellation.’ When an appellation is given to a stranger, the person who heard the appellation becomes to realize his/her existential location in a ‘given reality’ by the appellation. In his novel Namaste, Park, Bumshin describes the place where the nationalistic ideology plays an important role that publishes a slogan of thoroughbredness and expels other ethnic groups as a place of fear and division. Kamil an immigrant worker from Nepal is called ‘you guys’ or ‘You are of a different breed.’; and it is the same experience Sinwoo has in the United States. This appellation is what differentiates one ethnic group from others dualistically. Although Kamil seems to make active efforts to overcome such a reality by speaking his mind on the reality of the immigrant workers at a place of a sit-down demonstration or so, he eventually chooses to commit suicide and which symbolizes a limit to the trial by immigrants of knocking down the boundary of the nationalistic ideology. Garibong Love Song by Kong, Sun-ok is a story about a nomadic life by Myeong-hwa who chose a marriage in order to emigrate to Korea and by Yong-ja who left her house in a farm village of Jeolla-do with an economic aim. These two women want to enter the ideological oppressive mechanism of capitalism. In a place for making money, Myeong-haw actively wants to be called ‘Heo, Seung-hui. However, what waits for Myeong-hwa who wants to become subjection in the capitalistic society is nothing but death. They fail in healing themselves in the lonely world with “maternal love” and “sisterhood bond.” In the novel, ‘money’ is the main instigator of poverty and the misrecognization of misfortune. Garibong Love Song reveals a limit to the two immigrants who want to live their own life as subjection in Korea’s capitalistic society after leaving Black Dragon River of China. Put differently, it shows a reality in which the two immigrant women of international marriage owing to economic reasons can’t be free economically in the Korean society. In Paprika by Seo, Seong-ran, Chuen an immigrant woman of international marriage from Vietnam comes to experience identity confusion in the pace of a Korean farm village. She is a Vietnamese woman who gets married with a Korean man; but her in-laws want her to become a Korean woman. Rather than recognizing her subjection, they force her to be assimilated to the Korean society. Her husband calls her a Korean name ‘Su-yeon’ with no regard to her thought on it. He tries to assimilate her to the already made familism ideology; however, it causes her to be expelled out of the place of family. Through the works investigated in this manuscript, it becomes clear that how the ideological oppressive mechanism influences the multi-cultural society of Korea in relation to its mutli-culturalization and that there is a limit in terms of that it is difficult for immigrants to take their own life location in the society. It might be that it takes a long time for the multi-cultural novels to show the prospect of a positive future. For doing so, it is necessary for more novels to be written that press charges against paradox and oppression in the multi-cultural society and show hybridism. It is also hoped that the multi-cultural novels portray a multi-cultural future without prejudice where there is a figure that grows up, penetrating the crevice of the epoch. Hence, the analysis of the multi-cultural novels with the ideological frames can be contribute to securing a broad outlook to understand not only the multi-cultural novels but also the transitional phenomena of a multi-cultural society. The government policy that positively and efficiently assimilates immigrants to the Korean society and the role of the multi-cultural novels that help overcome the oppressive ideology of disdifferentiation and otherization of immigrants are anticipated.