좋은 삶을 위하여  「기러기의 꿈」의 탈북 서사와 행복의 이데올로기 (For a Better Life: Defector Narratives and the Ideology of Happiness in Wild Goose Dreams)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 영미문학연구회
· 수록지 정보 : 안과밖:영미문학연구 / 46호 / 201 ~ 220페이지
· 저자명 : 나은하

초록

In light of the emerging literature on North Korean defectors, the article investigates the prevalent discourses on human rights and happiness as an coercive neoliberal ideology. While earlier defector memoirs focused on political accusations of the totalitarian regime and the human rights violation in North Korea, recent memoirs have appealed to the universality of human desire to pursue “the good life.” This change reflects a discursive shift in the public perception of North Korean problems from ideological ones to economic ones within the post-Cold War frame of neoliberal globalization. Focusing on Hansol Jung’s play Wild Goose Dreams (2017), the article probes how the illusory promises of the good life serve as mobilizing forces for individuals including North Koreans to cross borders in pursuit for a better life from the so-called Third World to the First World. The play’s depiction of a romance between a female defector and a goose father in South Korea reveals the mutually oppressive ways in which the ideology of happiness prevails on the Korean peninsula, where expectations for a better life are strictly dictated by the social norms and lead to affective isolation of individuals and absence of intimate community. The article suggests that such critique of life under neoliberalism prods us to reconsider the notions of freedom and happiness perpetuated in defector narratives and envision the shared future beyond the frame of political ideology.

영어초록

In light of the emerging literature on North Korean defectors, the article investigates the prevalent discourses on human rights and happiness as an coercive neoliberal ideology. While earlier defector memoirs focused on political accusations of the totalitarian regime and the human rights violation in North Korea, recent memoirs have appealed to the universality of human desire to pursue “the good life.” This change reflects a discursive shift in the public perception of North Korean problems from ideological ones to economic ones within the post-Cold War frame of neoliberal globalization. Focusing on Hansol Jung’s play Wild Goose Dreams (2017), the article probes how the illusory promises of the good life serve as mobilizing forces for individuals including North Koreans to cross borders in pursuit for a better life from the so-called Third World to the First World. The play’s depiction of a romance between a female defector and a goose father in South Korea reveals the mutually oppressive ways in which the ideology of happiness prevails on the Korean peninsula, where expectations for a better life are strictly dictated by the social norms and lead to affective isolation of individuals and absence of intimate community. The article suggests that such critique of life under neoliberalism prods us to reconsider the notions of freedom and happiness perpetuated in defector narratives and envision the shared future beyond the frame of political ideology.

참고자료

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