로버트 블라이의 『몸 둘레의 빛』: 반전(反戰)시의 양상

Aspects of Anti-war Poetry in Robert Bly's The Light Around the Body

This paper reveals major aspects of Robert Bly's anti-war poetry in his second book, The Light around the Body. Bly shows his sense of wrath against the Vietnam War and criticizes the current political climate as well as the psychic background of the war-time American society. Sly introduces the concept of the 'father-consciousness'(or the outer world) and the 'mother-consciousness'( or the inward world) to show that the characteristics of the former are "logical thought, rational thought, movement in straight lines, discipline, Calvinism, dislike of tenderness" etc. and those of the latter are "passion, tenderness, love of nature, love of animals" etc. He suggests that if a society is "captured by the outward world"(the father-consciousness), it is bound to encounter a conflict, possibly a war. Thus, recovering the inward world is essential to be healed from the wounds of the outward world. This paper divides the five sections of The Light Around the Body into three parts. The first two sections of the book depicts the political or the outer causes of the Vietnam War. In these poems, Bly warns and criticizes the American expansionism, racism, commercialism, Puritanism etc. The third section of the book describes the Vietnam War as an eruption of imbalanced forces in the unconscious. And the last two sections of the book deliver a healing message. In these poems, Sly shows that each individual can be healed from the wounds of the war only by recovering the inward world through which he can be saved. Therefore, Sly's anti-war poetry, which does not urge any political solutions of the conflict, is better understood as meditative, ritualistic, and moral rather than political.