그람시적 문화 읽기: 『<바보들>』과 『<약속의 땅>』 연구

• 영문명: Gramscian Cultural Reading: A Study of Fools and Promised Land
• 발행기관: 한국비평이론학회
• 저자명: 이경옥
• 간행물 정보: 『비평과 이론』제8권 제1호, 65~87쪽, 전체 23쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2003.05.01

영문 초록

This article offers a Gramscian interpretation of South African culture as represented by two films adapted from two novels, Fools and Promised Land. Gramsci defined culture as the inner preparation that is required before any historical event. His concept of culture as the discipline of one's inner self is different from an encyclopedic knowledge passively accumulated to show off. According to him, true culture is the gaining of a higher recognition in order to acknowledge one's own historical value, one's own function in life, and one's own rights and obligations. This recognition, however, should not be the result of physical needs, but rather the result of intelligent reflection, first by a few people, and later by a whole class, about why these conditions exist and how people can be freed from any kind of subjection. Through this process, when a certain kind of culture is accepted across classes, the culture becomes hegemonic. Ndebele's Fools exemplifies the process of the formation of the cultural and historical consciousness of ordinary black people by making them reflect on their impotent and humiliating lives, on either their indifference or resistance. In Fools, Zani is an example of a culturally immature person, filled only with ideas and slogans. Naturally, his every attempt to recruit other blacks fails, but, through a series of disciplines, he eventually comes to terms with his identity. Zamani, who is leading an impotent and degenerate life, comes to reflect on his life after meeting Zani. Zamani suffers a lashing by a Boer (White Afrikaans-speaking South African), and this experience offers a turning point towards a regenerated life. The two yew trees that he sees on the hill that he climbed after being whipped by the Boer makes him recognize that South Africa is divided racially and socially, and that he himself is trapped between these divisions. This exemplifies the Gramscian notion of the process of cultural formation. Gradually, Zamani becomes conscious of both history and his own identity. The film of the same title, adapted from the novel in 1997, indicates that the process of reconciliation and forgiveness between black and white, as well as between black and black, is the key to the cultural hegemony of the whole nation. Schoeman's Promised Land reflects on the life of a group of Afrikaners in South Africa. The Afrikaners in the novel are not merely a sect of marginalized white farmers; they have a symbolical meaning. They are in a sense likened to the Protestant founding fathers of the United States of America. Their fall is not so much the collapse of physical lives as that of their affluence and the 'pure' Afrikaans organic community. The author tries to show that their separatist lifestyle and affluence at the expense of other people can no longer be tolerated. This kind of reflection was the concern of many Afrikaans writers in the 1970s and 1980s, and increasingly became the ideology of liberal Afrikaners. The film Promised Land produced in 2003 emphasizes the anachronism of the extreme Afrikaans right-wing by portraying them as abnormal, violent, and fanatical. This representation shows that the prevalent social code today is coexistence and reconciliation. It is implied that unless the Afrikaners follow the social code, they face self-destruction. Thus the film warns against their extremity, and at the same time encourages acceptance of the current social code and coexistence with other people by affirming Carla's way of life.

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인용문헌

Abstract