KJCKorea
Journal Central

A journey is associated with transcendental impulse or escape to get out of routines. A traveller leaving for roads gets to open new horizons of awareness through searching unfamiliar time and space. The journey like this, irrespective of whether it’s a real journey or a journey as a metaphor, is based as the internal form of modern narrative literature. A journey type-novel is the searching process of a hero’s desire. It is exposed by narration and language and in other words, by symbol. Narration is made up for a chain of incidents and these form meanings. Also, the psychology of a related character who is involved in incidents is narrated by symbol. As a result, the subject’s consciousness can be revealed through the analysis of narration and symbol. This thesis attempts to prove the alienation and desire of the subject with two axises of <A road to Tongdosa>, i.e narration and symbol. The hero leaves the journey because of the earnest desire for “her”. This journey process shows that his desire for her comes from a vague sense of longing for his mother. The process to confirm his being is the journey to Tongdosa. While on journey, the hero is confronted with the reality of his desire and the process is revealed by symbol. Based on Lacan’s theory, this paper analyzed the symbol where his consciousness arrives at. The hero wonders about the signifier's world. A alienated signifier’s destiny, who longs to meet the signified but not to meet is the same as that of the hero. A series of narrations hint at the possibility for the subject to overcome his alienation.

Journey-type novel, narrative, symbol, subject, alienation, desire, signifier, signified