Empathy and Alliance Generated by the Representation of Disability in Literature－Focusing on Shani Mootoo’ Cereus Blooms at Night－

Lee Sun-min; Woo, Chung Wan

doi:10.31310/HUM.072.05

This paper starts from the critical perspective that the aesthetic representation of disability in contemporary novels marginalizes the discourses on efforts for promoting a more ethical understanding of the disability issues by focusing on rhetorical symbolism such as political resistance rather than the materiality of the disabled bodies and the actual experience of the disabled individuals. Thus, this paper aims to argue that the ethical issues at the core of representations of disability are ‘vulnerability’ and ‘dependence,’ which result in anxiety. This perspective will be supported by exploring the way Shani Mootoo’s novel Cereus Blooms at Night represents disability, based on Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abject and Rosemarie Garland- Thomson’s concept of the Misfit. Mootoo describes how her main character becomes a mentally disabled figure resulting from a change of space. Physical violence caused by a conflict between individual values and hegemony creates misfit space and transforms the main character into a mentally disabled abject figure. However, the mentally disabled character deconstructs the boundary between misfit and fit through ‘interactive empathy and bonding.’ This suggests the possibility of interactive empathy and bonding for minority individuals by recognizing atavistic vulnerability and dependence. Through the analysis of Cereus Blooms at Night, this paper maintains that mental disabilities also have access to materiality as a medium for interactive empathy and bonding. As a result, this paper argues that the representation of the actual experience of the people with disabilities in contemporary novels suggests the possibility of understanding ‘vulnerability’ and ‘dependence’ between the non-disabled and the disabled individuals.

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REFERENCES (19)
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* 2022년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

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