한하운 시 연구 - 한하운 시의 ‘주체인식’과 ‘공동체의식’을 중심으로 -

이유정(Lee, Yu-Jeong) 우리문학회 2021 우리文學硏究 Vol.- No.70

사회적 타자로서 갈 곳을 잃은 시적 주체가 자신의 길을 모색하는 것은 한하운 시의 지속적인 문제의식이다. 이 글은 한하운의 시를 대상으로 시적 화자가 ‘벌거벗은 생명’으로 억눌리는 상황과 여기서 벗어나려는 저항의 양상들을 살펴, 궁극적으로 한하운 시에 나타난 시적 주체성의 모습을 규명하고자 한다. 아감벤이 말하는 ‘호모사케르’는 ‘신성하고도 저주받은 자’라는 의미를 지닌 양가적 존재이다. 호모사케르는 타인을 오염시키기 때문에 가까이할 수 없고, 살해해도 처벌받지 않는 예외적인 상태에 놓여 있다. 호모사케르로 지목된 인간이 바로 ‘벌거벗은 생명’이며 이들은 사회로부터 어떠한 보호도 받지 못한다. 한센인으로 사는 삶을 경험했던 한하운의 시에는 ‘벌거벗은 생명’으로서의 자의식이 드러난다. 한하운 시의 화자는 자신의 병든 몸과 사회로부터 배제된 자신의 실존을 객관적 거리를 유지한 채 담담하게 묘사한다. 화자의 비참한 처지는 해방과 전쟁 직후의 시대에 대부분 사람이 직면했던 보편적 경험들과 맞닿아 있다는 점에서 인간의 근원적 고통을 환기한다. 하지만 화자의 비애감에 공감하게 하는 것만으로는 현실에 대하여 인식론적 전환의 계기를 마련하지 못한다. 한하운의 시가 보다 구체화 된 현실 인식을 보이게 되는 것은 그가 ‘호모사케르’로서의 위치를 자각하면서부터이다. 한하운의 시에는 소외된 자아를 부정하려는 시적 화자의 태도가 두드러진다. 자유롭게 존재하는 줄 알았던 주체가 사실은 사회 시스템 안에 갇혀 있는 존재라는 깨달음은 역설적으로 주체를 훈육하려는 권력의 논리에서 벗어나려는 의지와 관련된다. 이에 한하운 시의 자기부정성은 역설적 의미의 주체 인식이라고 볼 수 있다. 한편, 한센인과 정상인은 애초에 같은 내력을 지니지 않았기에 같은 운명을 가지기 어렵다. 한하운은 한센인과 정상인이 공존해서 살아가는 것이 불가능하다는 현실 인식을 바탕으로 개인적 주체가 아닌, 집단적 주체의 연대의식을 끌어낼 수 있는 새로운 공동체를 만들고자 한다. 한센인들은 그들만의 경험과 유대감을 바탕으로 인간적인 삶을 영위할 수 있는 공간을 만든다. 한하운 시에 나타난 타자들의 연대는 동일성을 추구하는 지배 권력에 포섭되지 않으려는 시인의 자의식을 보여주는 것이다. 한하운 시에 나타난 ‘벌거벗은 생명’으로서의 기억은 그것이 과거의 이야기가 아니라 현재에도 지속되고 있다는 점에서 문제적이다. 우리는 누구든지 ‘벌거벗은 생명’이 될 수 있다는 점에서 우리 내면에는 이미 ‘벌거벗은 생명’이 배제되어 있으면서도, 동시에 포함되어 있다. 진정한 한센인 공동체는 상상 속의 영역이었지만, 한하운의 시는 우리가 타자들의 삶을 포용할 수 있을 때 우리도 벌거벗은 생명이 될 수 있다는 공포감에서 해방될 수 있다는 점을 말하고 있다. In Han Ha-Woon’s poem, it is important that the poetic narrator seeks his own path. This article examines the situation in which the poetic speaker is repressed with "homo sacer" in Han Ha-Woon’s poem. By studying the pattern of resistance, we investigate the appearance of the poetic subject. "homo sacer" means divine and cursed. The "homo sacer" cannot be approached and is not punished for killing. Humans designated as "homo sacer" are not protected from society. In Han Ha-Woon’s poem, the self-consciousness of "homo sacer" is revealed. Han Ha-Woon objectively describes his diseased body and his existence excluded from society. The disastrous situation of the speaker is similar to the universal experience faced by most people at that time, showing the underlying human suffering. Han Ha-Woon recognizes reality as he realizes her position as a "homo sacer". In Han Ha-Woon’s poems, self-negativeness appears. This is related to the will to escape from the power that oppresses the subject. Self-negativeness is the subjectivity of a paradoxical meaning. On the other hand, it is difficult to have the same fate as leprosy patients and normal people are different in the first place. Patients with leprosy cannot live with normal people. So leprosy patients create their own world. Leprosy patients create a community with their own experiences and bonds. The solidarity of others shows the poet"s self-consciousness to resist the dominant power. "homo sacer" is not a story of the past. It is a problem that persists even today. We can be any "homo sacer". We censor ourselves because we are potential"homo sacers". The real leprosy community was an imagination, but Han Ha-Woon’s poem says that we should embrace the other. When we accept the other, we can be freed from the fear that we too can become “homo sacers”.

한국 문학에서호모 사케르와 주권 권력의 역학관계와 재현 양상

이도흠 한국언어문화학회 2016 한국언어문화 Vol.0 No.62

Lee, Doheum. 2016. The Representation and Correlation between Sovereign Power and Homo Sacer in Korean Literature. This paper critically accepted Giorgio Agamben’s theory and applied it to Korean literary work: The folk tale of Wukmyeon in the Buddhist era, Boeun-giu-rok in the Confucian era, Namaste in modern times. There are opposition between human order and divine order in King Gyeongdeok era. It is possible to be excluded by sovereign power in human order but is not possible to be homo sacer through sacrificial rite in divine order. Wukmyeon is a homo sacer whois excluded by sovereign power. However, in the temple that the authority of Buddha far surpass King’s, she is practicing asceticism to escape from homo sacer, and to become a Buddha. In the order of the family in which Confucian mythology operates, Yeoncheong Wi, hero in Boeun-giu-rok, is homo sacer who can be assaulted and deported by his father, and can be killed by law and culture based on Confucian ideology at that time. However, outside of the order of the family, he is the ideal pursuing the moral and ethics of Confucianism. So, Yeoncheong Wi escapes from homo sacer and passes the state examination, and makes a lot of money and reconciles with his father. Kamil, hero in Namaste, is homo sacer who is thoroughly excluded by the sovereign power and Korean people who have a strong ethnic myth and exclusiveness. Kamil resists against the sovereign power through various types of action in order to escape from homo sacer. However, no change at all, he eventually suicides himself.

이사벨, 포섭되지 않는 호모 사케르: 허먼 멜빌의 『피에르』를 중심으로

장정윤 ( Jung Yoon Chang ) 미국소설학회 2010 미국소설 Vol.17 No.2

This paper studies the contradictory relationship between a sovereign and a homo sacer among Pierre`s mother, Mary Glendinning, Pierre, and Isabel in Herman Melville`s Pierre or The Ambiguities based on concepts outlined in Giorgio Agamben`s Homo Sacer. Mary is representative of the sovereignty and seemingly has authority to decides who are citizen or a homo sacer, what is moral or immoral or what is legitimate or illegitimate. She controls both of them: it appears as though homo sacer still remains in the boundary on which that the sovereignty decides who are citizen or not, or what is moral or not. Isabel, who was born as an illegitimate child of Mr. Glendinning, represents the very homo sacer who is not afforded any right from society. Although she just possesses a bare body, she reveals the absurdity and fabrication of the sovereignty`s authority and manipulation in their construction of the boundary between good and evil, between legitimate and illegitimate, between a citizen and a homo sacer. She unconsciously helps Pierre, who realizes the relationship between a sovereignty and a homo sacer, to escape from the sovereign`s regulation. Pierre, who finds himself in a complicated relationship with Mary and Isabel decides to be a homo sacer, relinquishing Glendinning`s property and the right to become a member of society. Consequently he then plunges into the mysterious space, merging into Isabel and exiting as an ambiguous existence over which the sovereign cannot win.

한국 문학에서 호모 사케르와 주권 권력의 역학관계와 재현 양상

이도흠 ( Lee Doheum ) 한국언어문화학회(구 한양어문학회) 2016 한국언어문화 Vol.61 No.-

This paper critically accepted Giorgio Agamben`s theory and applied it to Korean literary work: The folk tale of Wukmyeon in the Buddhist era, Boeun-giu-rok in the Confucian era, Namaste in modern times. There are opposition between human order and divine order in King Gyeongdeok era. It is possible to be excluded by sovereign power in human order but is not possible to be homo sacer through sacrificial rite in divine order. Wukmyeon is a homo sacer who is excluded by sovereign power. However, in the temple that the authority of Buddha far surpass King`s, she is practicing asceticism to escape from homo sacer, and to become a Buddha. In the order of the family in which Confucian mythology operates, Yeoncheong Wi, hero in Boeun-giu-rok, is homo sacer who can be assaulted and deported by his father, and can be killed by law and culture based on Confucian ideology at that time. However, outside of the order of the family, he is the ideal pursuing the moral and ethics of Confucianism. So, Yeoncheong Wi escapes from homo sacer and passes the state examination, and makes a lot of money and reconciles with his father. Kamil, hero in Namaste, is homo sacer who is thoroughly excluded by the sovereign power and Korean people who have a strong ethnic myth and exclusiveness. Kamil resists against the sovereign power through various types of action in order to escape from homo sacer. However, no change at all, he eventually suicides himself.

한국의 메르스 사태와 법, 그리고 호모 사케르 ― 아감벤의 민주주의와 전체주의 결탁 테제를 중심으로 ―

이정훈 ( Junghoon Lee ) 연세대학교 법학연구원 2016 法學硏究 Vol.26 No.3

Since the 2015 outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), improving the management of contagious diseases has been under heated discussion in Korean society. After gathering opinions from experts, the government came up with steps for reforming administrative systems and repairing response manuals in order to effectively contain transmittable illnesses. As usual, these strategies were mostly about expanding bureaucratic organization and strengthening the government`s authority. However, there was no discussion about Patient #80, who was deprived of his right to die with dignity when he passed away. Of course, discussions about compensation were made through legislative measures. The MERS victims, who were called Patients #35 and #80, and whom no one remembered, revealed the true face of modern laws and politics, which are based on their lives. While the constitution guarantees “personal liberty,” “the dignity of man,” and other such rights without much consideration, declaring an “exceptional state ” (which “halts” or temporarily nullifies the law) calls to mind the nature of legal force and “sovereignty.” Sovereign and homo sacer, two symmetrical forms located on the two extremes of law and order, have the same structure and are linked to each other. Here, a sovereign regards every person as a potential homo sacer over whom everyone exerts sovereignty (as a sovereign). The explanation that the body of the Leviathan is comprised of the body of each individual provides an excellent understanding of sovereignty, politics, and the body. In the structure of life politics in which only “life” (which includes economic things and safety) becomes political, life (which is politicized through life that is absolutely able to be murdered, or includes the very possibility of death) becomes the foundation of political authority. During the MERS outbreak, Patient #80 existed in a state of inclusive exclusion through which he was concurrently barred from and involved in Korean society, including the legal system. In Bio-politics, laws and politics are based on declaring an “exceptional state” as well as who will be considered a homo sacer in the name of democracy (from the “halting” of laws). Authority acquired legitimacy and was maintained since it had the potential to isolate (i.e., expel) Patient #80 and thus ensure the safety of the public. This nature and structure of politics and law have allowed modern democracy to be permanently close to and simultaneously collude with violent totalitarianism. For Patient #80, whose “personal liberty” and rights as a “dignified human being” were halted as an “exceptional state,” an “exception” (such as that he could die and hold his wife’s hand while not wearing anti-contamination clothing) to the rules on managing contagious diseases was never allowed. As Benjamin pointed out, citizens walked along the city streets feeling that they were free agents, reigned over a “naked life” while worrying about declining sales revenue due to the MERS outbreak, and silently conspired with totalitarianism by an implied majority vote. What is more frightening than the fear of MERS is the reality that human bodies, mass produced as a subordinate agent of bio-politics, serve as the foundation for the collusion between democracy and totalitarianism in the state of a potential homo sacer. With the MERS outbreak, Agamben`s study was a sobering reminder of the relationship between homo sacer and law-politics, or the nature of bio-politics. In addition, given the MERS outbreak, Korean society should consider Saito`s point that liberty should not be regarded as “the exclusion of interference” but rather as “the exclusion of dominance” (from the Republican viewpoint). Foucault distinguished a situation in which one submits to the other`s idea and ends up losing his/her ability to resist control from the relation of power; he called it the relation of dominance. In biopolitics, in order to be free from ruling, we must have a new understanding of the relationship between liberty and publicity, understand why we have to protect others` liberty, and what responsibilities we have to do so. Otherwise, if we are placed in a situation like the MERS infection of Patient #80 and end up being a homo sacer, no one will listen to us. We would not be allowed to die without wearing anti-contamination clothing and holding our spouse’s hand due to the irresponsibility of the anonymity of potential homo sacers, who worry about declining sales revenue and strongly support the body`s authority. As Agamben explained, the purpose is not to disparage what modern democracy has achieved. It is not to ridicule or belittle those who separated themselves from the MERS victims in the name of the public. This study ponders the topic that Agamben`s study raised in Korean society while considering the body of the Leviathan.

빈민 가족 서사 속 폭력과 호모 사케르

이은하 우리말글학회 2019 우리말 글 Vol.81 No.-

The purpose of this study is to discover the homo sacer as a political meaning in the family narration and determine that the family violence and the family relationship of the sub-class is the associated with the political structure of the society. The assertion by Giorgio Agamben that the antidemocratic incidents happened through homo sacer in the liberal democracy system were born when the modern sovereignty power was formed is the excellent idea. Play <Youth admiration> and movie <Blowfly> show that the domestic violence which seems to closely connected with the patriarchy in the family narration does not stay only in the domain of family discourse, and the destruction of family which appears in the poor family actually belongs to the exceptional phenomenon such as the homo sacer. In the play <Youth admiration>, it shows an attitude to follow the existing gender inequality by replacing unethical violence as a male-female relationship although it tries to break the paradigm of the existing father and son relationship. Despite the fact that it has been highly appreciated because it started dismantling of existing perspective, the contradictions of this problem awareness compromise the achievements of the deconstructivism. However, if the former tries to have microscopic solution through love for the family, the latter reveals by the independent movie of the documentary character that the poor family is the situation of homo sacer which happened in the Korean fast growth and the cover of the society called neoliberalism, which is more problematic. In particular, when he was beaten by the police and killed and abandoned by Youngjae, there was no sanctions by public authority or legal protection. At this point, it shows the Homo Sacer as the existence of the poor in a liberal democratic state. Therefore, the movie <Blowfly> shows the possibility of a meta-narrative which is still necessary. 본 연구는 가족 서사 안에서 정치적 의미로서의 ‘호모 사케르’(homo sacer)를 발견하여, 하위 계층의 가족 폭력과 가족 관계가 사회의 정치적 구조와 연관 있음을 살피려는 시도이다. 자유민주주의 체제 속에서 법과 제도의 예외 상태로서 호모 사케르라는 인간 존재를 만들어내는 현재의 국가 권력의 작동 방식이 극 서사를 통해 나타나고 있음을 연극 <청춘예찬>과 독립영화 <똥파리>의 분석을 통해서 밝히고자 한다. 가부장제와 긴밀히 연결된 듯 보이는 가정폭력이 실제로는 법과 제도로부터 소외된 빈민층의 존재 상태임을 가족 서사를 통해 발견할 수 있는데, 한국 사회에서 신자유주의가 예감되던 1999년 공연된 박근형의 <청춘예찬>은 기존 가족 서사와는 전혀 다른 폭력과 충격적인 가족 관계를 보여주면서 빈민의 새로운 존재 상태를 보여주었다. 각자도생과 이합집산의 사회에서 마지막 거처로 생각되었던 ‘가정’의 불행을 통해 하위 계층의 절망을 보여주면서도 미시적인 관점을 고수하여 가족애를 통한 삶의 회복의 가능성을 제시했다. 그러나 부자관계에서의 가치전도와는 달리, 부부관계에서는 기존의 전통적인 관계를 답습했다는 점에서 가부장제 파괴에 대한 작가의 관점에 모순을 드러내고 있다. 이 작품과 10년의 의미 있는 시간차를 보여주며 등장한 양익준 감독의 <똥파리>는 빈민 가정에서 벌어지는 일상적인 폭력을 통해 법과 제도 외부에 존재하는 호모 사케르의 존재 상황을 보여주며, 그것이 국가 권력에 기원하고 있음을 드러냈다. 특히 주인공 상훈이 폭력의 굴레에서 벗어나려는 순간 죽음을 당하므로써 폭력적 구조의 소모품으로서 버려지는 장면은 호모 사케르의 ‘조에’적 존재를 은유하는 것이라 볼 수 있다. 그는 순찰중인 경찰을 두들겨 패도 공권력의 제재를 받지 않으며 영재에게 죽임을 당해도 법적 보호를 받지 못한다. 이는 철저히 국가권력과 제도에서 벗어난 인간을 표상한다. 이렇게 <똥파리>는 호모 사케르적 삶을 사는 도시 빈민의 존재 상황에 국가의 제도적 폭력이 연관되어 있음을 드러냄으로써 포스트모던 시대의 새로운 거시 담론의 가능성을 보여주었다.

호모 사케르(Homo Sacer)는 한국사회의 ‘위험의 외주화’ 담론 분석의 철학이 될 수 있는가?

정재요 새한철학회 2022 哲學論叢 Vol.109 No.3

This thesis consists of an analysis of ‘risk outsourcing’, which can be seen as a bio political discourse in today's Korean society, especially through the political philosophy of ‘Homo Sacer’ presented by Giorgio Agamben. Through this, it is expected that it will be possible to evaluate whether Agamben's philosophy is suitable for Korea's labor reality, and to examine more closely the bio politics inherent in the discourse of risk outsourcing. In accordance with this plan, Chapter 2 of the thesis examines the political philosophy of Homo Sacer proposed by Giorgio Agamben at a rough level in order to prepare a framework for research analysis. The following Chapter 3 deals with the risk outsourcing established as a bio political discourse in Korean society. Chapter 4, which occupies the core part of the paper, consists of analyzing the discourse of risk outsourcing in Korean society through the theory of Homo Sacer presented by Giorgio Agamben. As a result of the study, it was confirmed that the themes related to Homo Sacer's political philosophy, such as the paradox of sovereignty, the order of exile, the non-identifying area, the state of exception, and the concentration camp, functioned as a meaningful prism in analyzing the discourse of risk outsourcing. 이 글은 오늘날 한국사회의 생명정치적 담론으로 볼 수 있는 ‘위험의 외주화’를 조르조 아감벤이 제시한 ‘호모 사케르’(Homo Sacer)의 정치철학을 경유하여 분석‧검토하는 내용으로 구성되어 있다. 이를 통해 아감벤의 사유가 과연 우리의 노동현실에 적실성을 가진 이론인지를 평가하고, 위험의 외주화 담론에 내재한 생명정치성을 보다 면밀하게 고찰할 수 있을 것으로 기대한다. 이러한 기획에 따라 본고의 2장에서는 연구 분석의 준거를 마련하기 위한 차원에서 아감벤이 제시한 호모 사케르의 정치철학을 개략적인 수준에서 검토하고, 3장에서는 한국사회의 생명정치적 담론으로 설정한 위험의 외주화에 관한 내용을 다루어본다. 논문의 핵심부분을 차지하는 4장은 아감벤이 제시한 호모 사케르의 이론적 틀을 경유하여 한국사회의 위험의 외주화 담론을 분석하는 내용으로 구성되어 있다. 연구결과, 호모 사케르의 정치철학에 관한 테마들인 주권의 역설(포함된 배제)‧추방령‧비식별역‧예외상태‧수용소 등은 ‘위험의 외주화’ 담론에 대한 해석적 고찰에 있어 유의미한 프리즘으로 기능하고 있음을 확인할 수 있었다.

무리, 다른 질서의 담지자 - 아감벤의 호모 사케르, 라캉의 여성 주체, 율곡의 유민(流民)-

김동희 ( Kim Dong-hee ) 한국기독교철학회 2023 기독교철학 Vol.38 No.-

This study aims to organize Agamben’s Homo Sacer, Lacan’s Female Subject, and Yulgok’s Drifting People as bearers of a different order by philosophically thinking about their structure. Methodologically, Chapter II the study on Agamben’s Homo Sacer discusses the bio-politics in which Agamben resummons and combines the bio-power presented by Foucault as a sign of Western modern politics distinct from a type of previous sovereign powers. Chapter III the study on Lacan’s Female Subject pursues the matter that Lacan makes an investigation into the structure of Male and Female subject in their relationship with the Phallus by reinterpreting Freud’s decoding of ‘female sexuality and penis envy’ into a narrative based on the Oedipus myth into the meaning and function of Phallus(Φ) from the perspective of linguistics. Chapter IV the study on Yulgok’s Drifting People rereads the statement on San-Rim-Cheon-Taek(山林川澤) of Sarim(士林)-politics into the condition of humanity from the perspective of the Drifting People with discussing the science of Seong-Gyeong(誠敬學) is the politics of Sugi-Chiin(修己治仁) and orientating two political statuses called Yusok(流俗) and Sarim(士林) respectively. The main point in this research is as follows. It makes senses that Agamben argued that Western politics is the bio-politics based on Homo Sacer (a bare sacred life) and that the reproduction of Homo Sacer is its original activity, but he did not explore that Homo Sacer could be the one of the carriers of a different order from the exclusive inclusion structure (exceptional structure) by the sovereign’s decision on the state of exception. This Homo Sacer’s structure has a analogous relationship with the total structure of Lacan’s male subject, which is composed of an exceptional being, the Other(the primary father uncastrated). Like the male subject, Lacan’s Female Subject is alienated from the total structure, but has a non-total structure that can choose a different order from that structure. For Lacan’s Female Subject, there is no such thing as an exceptional being that constitutes the universal overall structure, and there is no such thing as a woman who is completely subordinated to that structure; that is, inside the universal overall structure there is a split in that the Other who structures the male subject is the lack(or desire) - a castrated father S(Ⱥ), and the Female Subject is a bearer of a different order in such a way that she enjoys ‘a supplementary jouissance’ while related to S(Ⱥ). From the perspective of the Female Subject orienting this non-whole structure, the trap(阱) for trespassing on and prohibiting from San-Rim-Cheon-Taek(山林川澤) by the king and the faction of treacherous retainers(權姦) following the politics of Yusok(流俗) is analogous to S(Ⱥ), which indicates their lack (or desire). Just as Lacan’s Female Subject enjoys ‘a supplementary jouissance’ in her relation with S(Ⱥ), as a symptom of the exploitation and the social evil of the national system the Drifting People can enjoy life as a bearer of another order, related to the trap(阱).

『코리올레이너스』, 주권과 호모 사케르, 그리고 그 너머의 정치적 가능성

장선영(Seon Young Jang) 한국셰익스피어학회 2015 셰익스피어 비평 Vol.51 No.2

This paper starts from the extension of the political theology study progressed actively in the recent Shakespeare studies. With the transition of global situation specked with the violence among the religious sects, the revival of religious fundamentalism, and the war on terrorism justified in the name of divine mission, Renaissance scholars have expanded their interest on the Renaissance political theology which was confined to Ernst Kantorowicz’s The King’s Two Bodies, to the ones by Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, and Georgio Agamben. Agamben’s Homo Sacer, Sovereign Power and Bare Life, which will be interrogated in this paper as the explication for the political foundation of Coriolanus, functions as a proper bridge that connects Shakespeare texts and the political theology. Agamben points out the structural similarity between the sovereignty located simultaneously inside and outside the law, and the homo sacer who can be killed and yet not sacrificed, in that both are incorporated into the zone of politics as inclusive exclusions. This paper argues that the tragic hero, Coriolanus well represents both figures, the sovereign and the homo sacer, explained in Homo Sacer. Coriolanus is the sovereign in the sense that he still holds onto the noble status inherited from the monarchy though he is the one who expelled the tyrant, Tarquin, the remnant of Roman monarchy. He occupies the exceptional status in Rome in not conforming to the change from the monarchy to the republic, and from the martial area as a war hero to the civil area as a politician. At the same time, Coriolanus turns out to be the homo sacer as he was banished as a traitor to the state of Rome with the tribunes’s sovereign decision. Lastly, this paper attempts to discuss the new political possibility as an alternative to Agamben’s biopolitics unfolded between the sovereign and the homo sacer, with the concepts of the ‘divine violence’ and the ‘real state of emergency’ from Walter Benjamin’s “The Critique of Violence” and “Theses on the Philosophy of History”. Especially, this political possibility beyond Agamben’s sovereign and homo sacer will be traced in correlation with the later moment in Coriolanus when the boundary between the Romans and the Volscians is demolished as Coriolanus enters the field of his enemy, the Volsicans, from the status of the stranger and the friend.

Representation of the Immigrants as Homo Sacer in Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker

이복기 한국현대영어영문학회 2013 현대영어영문학 Vol.57 No.3

This paper aims to analyze Chang-rae Lee's debut novel, Native Speaker, by using Giorgio Agamben's analysis of sovereignty in relation to bare life, homo sacer. Homo sacer is a being on the threshold of nature and civilization, which the sovereignty draws a demarcation of citizenship on and derives the absolute power from. In reading of Native Speaker, we can realize that the status of the immigrants in the United States is not much better off than that of homo sacer, especially so in cases of the 'undocumented' immigrants. In the large part of the novel, the English language is presented as a medium through which the power of the native English speakers flows. However, when the story of John Kwang is delivered, the readers can face the sovereign power which confirms its absoluteness. John Kwang ambitiously attempts to represent the unrepresentable being and transgress the boundary of small business within which Asian Americans are recognized as 'model citizens.' The appearance of the INS instead of the Tax Office at the end of novel and John Kwang's final exile illustrate the confirmation of sovereign power by banning homo sacer.