토니 모리슨의 웃음: 언어적 기능과 담론의 무기

Morrison's Laughter: Function of Language and Weapon of Discourse

Morrison's laughter is different from that of any other literary work. Morrison uses laughter as a weapon for a discourse that dismantles the contradictions of Western conventions built up by dichotomous and rationalistic thinking. She uses laughter as a linguistic function to represent her discourse and a weapon of the discourse. By presenting the characteristics of African American laughter, that is, autonomous, unconscious, lasting for a long time, having a healing function, and combining with tears and dance, Morrison proves cultural differences and also shows the linguistic function of laughter. In addition, Morrison uses the recovery of laughter as a stepping stone to prepare for the future regarding the loss of their unique laughter as the loss of a foundation for life or the loss of the will to live. Morrison creates laughter as a weapon of discourse that resists dominant thinking prevents violence, and transcendent and universal discourses that break away from rationalism. This kind of laughter represents a difference rather than a language-to-language discourse and shows that there can be a variety of substitutes for language. The invention of imaginary and unrealistic laughter expands the horizons of laughter to unknown areas. Morrison's laughter does not create comedy but contains elements of both comedy and tragedy, transcends the limits of language, evokes empathy beyond language, and embraces a broader scope than the space-time contained in language. Morrison's invention of laughter means that laughter is not fixed, but changes and is created anew like language. The use of laughter allows Morrison’s extraordinary discourse as social, philosophical and cultural views to be flowered in a high level of literary art.