에로스의 윤리학: 『옆방에서』에 재현된 생성적 욕망과 타자

The Ethics of Eros: Representations of Fecund Desire and the Other in In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play.

This study examines the ways in which the characters affirm their subjectivity through the ethics of eros which can regenerate the subject and the Other in Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room or the Vibrator play. The protagonist, Catherine, reclaims her misrecognized and oppressed desire and establishes a new subjectivity by building a bond with female characters who are confined by the patriarchy. They forge a bond through the ethics of maternity and a fecund flow of desire. Ruhl shows that the characters’ hysteria is a cultural product of a patriarchal discourse and that it can be cured not through artificial treatment but by an intimate human relationship. The journey of Catherine’s self-discovery leads to recovering fragmented relationships, deconstructing a gender boundary, and producing reciprocal recognition with the Other. Catherine and her husband fulfill their desire through an intimate relationship, reclaiming their sexuality from original sin, and caress each other, blessing their regeneration. This suggests rewriting the primal Garden of Eden. The newly created Adam and Eve, ethical selves, foretell a new civilization which implies a new future transcending cultural restrictions.