탈근대 주체의 불안과 강박적 반복: 폴 오스터의 『리바이어던』읽기

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine Paul Austers Leviathan according to Slavoj Zizeks theory. Analyzing the characters in Leviathan, this paper chiefly discusses the postmodern subjects anxiety and obsessive repetition that the lack of the big Other led to. Section .... explains the disintegration of the big Other and the subjects anxiety and obsessive repetition by the interpretation of the characters: Peter Aaron, Maria Turner, and Benjamin Sachs. Aaron wants to write on Sachss life to overcome his uneasy subjects condition, and to establish the consistent and whole world. But his writing fails to meet his desire, owing to uncertainty of his understanding, and the incompleteness of his writing. In case of Maria, her uneasy subjects condition led to her obsessively repetitive picture-shooting herself and others, which proved to be a meaningless struggle for filling the void of the big Other and herself. Although Sachs already knows the lack and inconsistency of the big Other, he also repetitively tries to establish the consistent and whole Other. In Section .., this paper examines Sachss terror as he struggles for the preservation of the big Other. His extreme striving also fails to reestablish the big Other as it loses its symbolic effectiveness in the postmodern era because he does not grasp the big Other as an empty Symbolic order, and rejects the premise of the big Other itself.