포스트휴먼과 예언적 글쓰기 - 차학경과 캐시 박 홍의 시 비교

Posthuman and Prophetic Writing: A Comparison of Poems by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and Cathy Park Hong

The purpose of this paper is to compare the poems of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and Cathy Park Hong from a posthuman perspective. Cha embodies the subject as a networked being by reconstructing its diasporic memory and the linguistic sense expressed by the female body into DICTEE, photographs, and video films. She seeks to transcend anthropocentrism by deliberately dismantling the boundaries of artistic genres and by dispersing and recombining language in diverse ways. In particular, in her performance Aveugle Voix and the video Mouth to Mouth, she reconfigures the sensory elements of the body, leading even surplus noise and silent gestures to create new meaning. In Cha’s work, the posthuman is intertwined with the dismantling of fixed human identity. Subsequently, Hong appropriates Cha’s method of exploring the issue of identity, but pioneers it in her own unique language. She presents a dystopian scenario in which physical machines control and censor the human psyche. She offers a sober critique of the optimistic vision of transhumanism, which seeks to transcend the limitations of the human body by harnessing cutting-edge technology to enhance human sensory functions. Both poets break the boundaries between the human and non-human from the perspective of the posthuman and seek a trans-hybrid subject with a multi-layered voice. In short, Cha dismantles the boundaries of language and institutions, and Hong highlights the grim aspects of the transhuman of the future as she focuses on the emotions of marginalized subjects.