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Emotion of Shame and Its Ethical Possibility in the Novel Toji

KIM YEONSOOK 1

1경희대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Emotion is not simply what is given, but it is the experience in which the subject relates to the world. Previous discussions saw shame as being both positive and negative. The positive side is that shame allows a human being to pursue the better values through his or her self-examination. At the same time, since this examination and reflection are based on the negative awareness of self, they can be linked to a feeling of guilt, psychological suppression and the like. This awareness suggests that shame is closely related to the formation of the subject’s self-identity. This study seeks to examine the characters in Toji who suffer shame and to discuss the ethical meaning revealed in the process of their struggles and their response to such struggles. First, when the individuals exclude others and remain in their own world of self-identity, they lose a sense of shame. They remain in a state of self-centered narcissism, and cannot explore ethical judgment and values. Second, the characters tend to link the sense of shame to self-pride. At this time, shame is not that of being inhibitory and negative, but rather, becomes an element in the exploration of identity. Characters in Toji took the experience of shame as an internalized other person to stand firm in being a human. Third, characters showed shame from their sympathy with others. Individuals establish themselves as members of the community through a sense of shame. Fourth, characters developed a sense of shame from being conscious of others into self-examination. This self-examination did not lead to an active determination to change the external reality. However, a sense of shame served as an ontological emotion to recognize one’s passivity, and to explore the meaning of humans. This analysis revealed that shame was a factor that made it possible to construct a self-identity and to explore the communal emotional ability. Shame shown in Toji served as the way of reporting the signs of losing humanity, and as a mechanism of recovering humanity. This is the ethical possibility that shame in Toji can construct.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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