윤고은의 『밤의 여행자들』에 나타난 재난의 상품화와 저항의 가능성

초록

This paper analyzes the commodification of disaster in the late capitalist era and its literary responses through the phenomenon of dark tourism depicted in Yun Ko-eun’s novel, The Disaster Tourist. The study examines how disasters are spectacularized and commodified by the logic of capital, and discusses the possibilities of ethical practice that emerge from this process. Chapter 2 examines the pathological phenomena of late capitalism by analyzing the commodification system of ‘Jungle,’ a disaster tourism agency. Jungle thoroughly quantifies and abstracts disasters, transforming them into consumable products, and designs tourists’ emotional changes into predictable stages. This process reveals the harsh reality in which the suffering of others is exploited as a tool for tourists’ self-satisfaction. Chapter 3 explores the politics of space in Mui by applying Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia. Mui demonstrates a dual reality in which space is divided and controlled by the logic of capital, while simultaneously forming possibilities for resistance and solidarity. The survival of the crocodiles in the mangrove forest suggests the existence of resistant domains that cannot be completely subsumed despite capitalist control. Chapter 4 analyzes the protagonist Yona’s cognitive transformation and ethical practice based on Hannah Arendt’s concept of ‘action’. Yona’s transformation from a sexual violence victim to a disaster tourism planner, and then to a subject of relational ethics, demonstrates the possibility of political action that individuals can undertake even within the late capitalist system. Yona’s choice reveals a form of ethical action that creates fissures in the existing order through unpredictability and boundlessness. Furthermore, by illuminating the political significance of individual ethical practice through Arendt’s political philosophy, this study proposes a new interpretive framework that links a macroscopic critique of the system with a microscopic ethical practice.

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