장애 정치학과 포스트휴먼 윤리: <작은 신의 아이들>과 <사랑의 모양>에 재현된 수화 여성

• 영문명: Disability Politics and Posthuman Ethics: Representing Signing Women in Children of a Lesser God and The Shape of Water.
• 발행기관: 한국영미어문학회
• 저자명: 김영덕(Yungduk Kim)
• 간행물 정보: 『영미어문학』영미어문학 제129호, 1~19쪽, 전체 19쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2018.06.30

국문 초록

This essay explores Hollywood’s appropriations of the mermaid trope and constructions of monstrosity in Children of a Lesser God and The Shape of Water. These films foreground the sexuality of female characters who cannot speak, catering to the gaze of the voyeuristic spectator, while, at the same time, engaging in disability politics and posthuman ethics. Randa Haines’s film constructs Sarah as a feisty mermaid figure who protests against the hearing world by retaining her sign language as a sub culture, expressing her deaf politics. Moreover, Sarah’s tumultuous relationship with her hearing boyfriend ends up negotiating the terms of their co-existence. In contrast, Gillermono del Toro’s film, The Shape of Water, revolves around an ethical moment at which Elisa responds to the tormented monster’s cry, recognizing their shared precariousness. Through the process, she herself metamorphoses into a monstrous life form. The voiceless heroine qua a mermaid figure turns into a real mermaid, subverting the anthropocentric human/non-human binary. Her disabled body is open to linkages with other life forms, becoming monstrous and hence the process of “becoming-imperceptible.” This paper suggests that these disability films are the results of negotiations between commercial and ethico-political considerations. Furthermore, these negotiations render disabled bodies on the big screen loci for debates over the use of disability as a narrative device.

목차

1. 서론

2. 언어의 섹슈얼리티와 장애 정치학

3. 신체장애, 포스트휴먼 괴물성

4. 장애 담론에서 포스트휴먼 윤리로

5. 나가며

키워드

identity politics posthumanism disability monstrosity ethics Children of a Lesser God The Shape of Water 정체성 정치학 포스트휴머니즘 신체장애 괴물성 윤리 <작은 신의 아이들> <사랑의 모양>