과학적 진보와 문학의 과학적 상상력 사이의 대화: 『프랑켄슈타인』, 『모로 박사의 섬』, 『나를 보내지 마』를 대상으로

The Dialogue between Scientific Progress and the Scientific Imagination of Literature: in Cases of Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and Never Let Me Go

This Study investigates the scientific imagination of human creation in Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and Never Let Me Go. Britain is a nation where biotechnology has developed, and it is also a country that has produced famous novels with the theme of human creation. The purpose of this study is to diachronically investigate how human creation is imagined in the these novels, which were published in England at intervals of about 100 years from one another; and about how each of them is related to these scientific ideas. To investigate this, this study compared these three novels in relation to two aspects: the method of human creation and how to define created humans (post-humans). Firstly, In the method of human creation, vivisection was the way of human creation in the Island of Dr. Moreau and Frankenstein. However, Frankenstein saw the source of life as electricity while Dr. Moreau saw it possible through artificial evolution. On the other hand, cloning is the way of human creation in Never Let Me Go, which seems to be informed by the development of cloning technology in the early 21 st century. Secondly, this paper argues that to define created humans is related to the fear of human creators toward their creature. In Frankenstein and in The Island of Dr Moreau, the defining act is described as a fear about a third creature, while in Never Let Me Go, it is the possibility that they could be real humans.