무라타 사야카의 『편의점 인간』을 읽다－「근대적 자아」의 종언－ (Reading Sayaka Murata’s Konbini-Ningen(Convenience Store Human) -The Subversion of Modern self-)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국일본언어문화학회
· 수록지 정보 : 일본언어문화 / 43호 / 243 ~ 258페이지
· 저자명 : 유재진

초록

村田沙耶香の「コンビニ人間」が第155回芥川賞を受賞することになった。韓国や日本での本作への関心は作家本人が約18年間コンビニアルバイトと続けており、受賞した当初もバイトを続けているという作家の得意な履歴へと向かわれた。特に韓国での関心は本作が「コンビニエンスストア」を題材にしていることが浮彫りになって注目されている節がある。一方日本での反響は作品から読み取られるリアリティへの共感を高く評価した書評と主人公の造形が非現実的であり、「自意識」を欠落している主人公に対する否定的な評価に二分される。 しかし、何よりもこの作品が日本で大きな反響を呼んだのは、得意な主人公の人物造形にあるだろう。主人公古倉恵子は、既存の日本近代文学には描かれたことのない、「近代的自我」が欠落している人物であり、彼女によって日本近代文学が深化してきた「近代的自我」は一つの終焉を向かえ、歴史的事象となってしまった。社会という共同体と対地する地点を見出せる「内面」或は「近代的自我」を持ち得ない共同体その自体を一つの「虚構」にしてしまい、このような作品からは以後日本社会が進むべき道は見えてこないのである。

영어초록

The 155th Akutagawa prize for literature goes to 36-year-old Sayaka Murata. Her novel is called “Konbini Ningen,” which means “Convenience Store People.” For that the media latched onto the author’s background rather than the novel itself. Murata continues to work part-time as a convenience store clerk, and gains inspiration for characters and plots from her work environment. The novel itself is really about how extraordinary people have to become average in order to survive.
The protagonist, Keiko Furukura, has always been viewed as “strange” by others, including her family, who once thought she required treatment. She doesn’t react to circumstances the way “normal” people do, but she recognizes her differences and tries her best to fit in. In order to become a “regular person,” she begins working at a convenience store. There, she studies and copies other people. Convenience stores are the perfect place for this sort of project because they are run according to a job manual issued by management. Working there, she feels she has “become part of the machine of the world.” In truth, she is still the same person, but now “disguised as a member of society.” The protagonist, Furukura’s final choice to become ‘manualized human being’ rather than an individual human being leaves us to think about an Ethical problem in contemporary Japanese literature and its surrounding.

참고자료

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