버나드 맬라머드의 『점원』에 나타난 도덕적 주제 = A Moral Subject in The Assistant of Bernard Malamud

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Our contemporaries can be said to be the world of materialism, the machine and standardization, in which inhumane values increasingly thrive on chaos and disorder. Every individual can not be what he or she is and has become an endlessly small human beings. Isolation and suffering have become the condition of existence. However, Bernard Malamud, who has written since 1950's, never lose the belief in the human nature among this chaos and despair. He is, in some sense, the writer of existential humanism. Because he proclaims that all the individuals must choose the best behavior with their own free will, and assume the responsibility for other's action. Also Malamud proclaims that every individual must commit himself actively to the process of bringing justice and order to the society.
Malamud is a kind of "American-Jewish writer"who is under the influence of American Romanticism as well as Jewish folk literature tradition. He uses "Jewishness"as the central metaphor in most of his works. It contains an ethical symbolism which represents the existential agony of modern man, who inevitably experiences the disparity between the real and the ideal. And Malamud uses the types of "schlemiel-schlimazel"as his main characters. These characters realize the true self-identity and develop into mature human beings who willingly suffer for others. But, before, they must experience the "Prison"situation, which symbolizes all the unavoidable human limitations.
Malamud wrote many short stories and novels. Most of his novels deal with human freedom and humanity through the characters' self-knowledge after their suffering. When facing and accepting suffering, most of his characters realize suffering as the nature of human conditions, on account of the suffering they have experienced, and thereby they understand the true meaning of life. Malamud is a pursuer of a better life through past suffering. He emphasizes the altruism that we should sacrifice ourselves for others.
All Malamud's novels are about our common activities. He shows the standard of life through the most realistic and imminent problems in our times. His novels are basically the stories of the pursuit of a new life through suffering, self-knowledge, and moral rebirth. In The Assistant I intend to approach the process of self-recognition of Frank Alpine, who suffers because of self-disintegration, but who develops into a mature person through the relation with Morris Bober who is his spiritual father as well as his teacher. Consequently, The Assistant deals with Frank Alpine, who overcomes his individual immorality and devotes himself to a family larger than an individual.
We will have to restore our humanity by bearing the messages of Bernard Malamud's novels in our mind - accepting and enduring the suffering in life, acquiring morality. That is our immediate task in this world where human nature has been lost. Malamud devoted all his life to changing "you and me"into "us"which is our original self. In this sense, Malamud can be a great teacher and moralist of our time and his works can be highly valued.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 목차
• 영문초록 = i
• I. 서론 = 1
• II. 유태성의 의미와 자아의 부정 = 9
• III. 고난을 통한 자아 인식의 과정 = 19
• 1. 모리스 보우버의 고난과 이타주의 = 19
• 2. 프랭크 알파인의 양면성과 자아확립 = 33
• IV. 결론 = 51
• 참고문헌 = 54