<월-E>와 집의 정치학 : 지구, 고국, 그리고 포스트-9/11 미국 = The Politics of Home in WALL-E : Earth, Homeland, and Post-9/11 America

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article reads WALL-E (2008) as a post-9/11 American narrative. Focusing on the film’s narrative trajectory from Earth to outer space and back to Earth, it argues that the return to Earth functions not merely as a physical restoration of land but as a symbolic return to home, homeland, and ultimately America. The study begins by addressing a central question: why do the descendants of humanity who have never inhabited Earth and possess no lived memory of it immediately recognize it as ‘home’ and speak of ‘returning’? To answer this question, the study examines how the film constructs Earth as an imagined homeland. Drawing on American cultural history and post-9/11 homeland discourse, it demonstrates how WALL-E transforms a place beyond lived experience into a site of belonging, attachment, and national return. In this respect, the film reproduces a post-9/11 ideological structure in which land, home, and homeland become inextricably intertwined. By interpreting the second half of WALL-E through the lens of homeland discourse, this paper argues that the vision of reclaiming Earth reflects broader American desires for security, belonging, and national renewal in the aftermath of 9/11. Ultimately, WALL-E emerges as a post-9/11 American narrative that reimagines Earth as homeland and projects contemporary national desires onto a futuristic setting.