탈식민주의 아브젝트의 정치학: 『비너스』에 나타난 서발턴의 욕망과 정체성

The Politics of Postcolonial Abject: The Subaltern Desire and Identity in Venus

In Venus, Suzan-Lori Parks summons the subaltern Venus from the historical grave to the center of the stage. Parks rewrites history and dramatizes how the social abject oppressed and expelled from society exercises her desire and subverts the dominant discourse. Western colonial discourses define Venus as the other through abjection, which is a fictional subjectification process that has the possibility of the abject s rebellion within it. The ambivalent characteristic of the abject, both repelling and attracting, causes the rupture of the subject and creates the opportunity for the generation of a new identity. The subaltern Venus s mimicry also threatens and deauthorizes the hegemonic subject and discourses. Parks thus presents the possibility of resignification of the Symbolic law through the interaction between the Semiotic and the Symbolic. Parks invites the audience to a cultural ritual in which she has Venus speak directly to the audience and ask them to kiss her. In this peculiar ritual scene, the spectators are encouraged to explore cultural alternatives and think about how to respond to the other. This way Parks urges the audience to embrace the other and come up with a strategy for true coexistence.