『웃음과 망각의 책』에 나타난 '웃음'과 '망각'의 의미

• 영문명: The Meaining of 'Laughter' and 'Forgetting' in "The Book of Laughter and Foregetting"
• 발행기관: 한국중동부유럽학회
• 저자명: 김규진(Kyu-Chin, Kim)
• 간행물 정보: 『동유럽발칸학』동유럽발칸학 창간호, 137~164쪽, 전체 28쪽
• 주제분류: 사회과학 > 지역학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 1999.12.30

영문 초록

"The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" structurally takes on the view point of deconstructualism. As mentioned above in the beginning, it is an experimental novel, that is to say, it is the destruction of the traditional novel form or it is a novel of new form. The large variety of material and the independent nature of almost all the chapters in the novel threatens its artistic unity. Christian Salmon even asked Kundera if "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" could be considered a novel during a discussion about structural 따t， at which Kundera answered thus: "What keeps it from looking like one is that there is no unity of action. It is hard to imagine a novel without that unity. Even the 'nouveau roman' experiments were grounded in a unity of action{or of inaction)----In "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting", the coherence of the whole is created solely by the unity of a few themes{motifs), which are developed in variations. Is it a novel? Yes, to my mind. The novel is a meditation on existence as seen through the medium of imaginary characters. As Kundera and Chvatik pointed out, the structure of Kundera’s novel is not a unity of events and actions but it is a unity of themes, which is portrayed in the characters. In other words it shows the unity of themes in the novel, as polyphony and variation show the unity of themes in music. Kundera uses this technique to artistically unify the diffused structure in his experimental novel. Furthermore the author himself appears as the narrater in the novel and speaks to the readers. As Kundera mentions above, as the narrator in the novel, the theme of the book is ’ laughter' and ’forgetting'. In Kundera’s "The Art of the Novel" he speaks of the role of theme in his novel thus: "A theme is an existential inquiry. And increasingly I realize that such an inquiry is, finally, the examination of certain words, theme-words. Which leads me to emphasize: A novel is based primarily on certain fundamental words.---In "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting", the ’tone-row’ goes: forgetting, laughter, angels, litost, border. Over the course of the novel, those five principal words are analyzed， studied, defined, redefined, and thus transformed into categories of existence." Here we must pay attention to the theme-words which are transformed into the realm of existence. As Chvatik points out the theme-words unite the diffused structures of the novel into a single novel.. Kundera composes "The Book of the Laughter and Forgetting" into a typical fictional story, but completes the novel using the unique method of extending the above mentioned themes on top of the story. He draws out unity with these themes while unfolding the events or the stoη. He also deeply deals with additional themes besides the diffused plot. He adds to the joy of reading his work by introducing us to many interesting things, which he does by inserting themes of music and art or various episodes in the form of essays. The reason he emphasizes the greatness of novels like Cervantes’ s "Don Quixote", Rabelais' "Gargantua and Pantagruel" and Stem’s "The Sentimental Journey of Tristam Shandy" is that they already used this method in the 17th and 18th century. Kundera directly deals with theme of Moravian folk music and folk festival in his first novel "The Joke" and theme of Kitsch and motifs of music and art in his "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" in the form of essays. In "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" Kundera deals with the discord of love and sex as the main motif also used in "Laughable Love", "The Joke" and "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". In particular 'Mother’ and ’The Boarder' paradoxically describe sex in modem society. Kundera philosophically and speculatively deals with the role of sex in his novels.

목차

1. 머리말

2. "권력에 대한 투쟁은 기억을 보전하고자 하는 투쟁이다."

3. 웃음과 망각의 모티브

4. 악마와 천사들의 웃음

5. 과거를 유지하고자 하는 따미나

6. 연민과 사랑

7. 실존의 의미를 찾고자 몸부림치는 따미나

8. 경계를 넘어

9. 맺는말