한국계 미국청소년문학에 나타난 정체성과 라깡의 히스테리의 담론: Marie G. Lee를 중심으로

A Lacanian Study of Identities As Revealed in Korean-American Literature for Young Adults: Marie G. Lee's Novels in the Light of “Discourse of the Hysteria"

In recent years in Korea, research regarding Korean-American literature has been visibly increased in the areas of both English and Korean Literature. However, it has been limited to so-called 'adult' literature although multiculturalism gives rise to small but successful publications in the category of Korean-American literature for young adults, which, like Korean-American 'adult' literature, deals with the pains of diaspora, generation gaps, racial/gender prejudices, cultural rootlessness, and conflictual identities. This article aims at delving into the complex layer of Korean-American adolescent characters who are torn between confusing and disturbing identities that are formed and controlled by the name of the Korean Other and the American Other. Using Lacan's theory of "Discourse of the Hysteria," this article offers a psychoanalytic reading of complicated identities as seen in Marie G. Lee's characters. It explains how a complex, on-going negotiations and conflicts are made to seek a true identity between two opposing Others, between the Others and the objet a, and between the subjects and the ideals valued by the Others. This reading proves that these identities are too polymorphous to be classified in terms of hibridity, liminality, or interstice.