애도하지 않는 후기 자본주의 사회: 벤자민 펄시의 「새로 고침, 새로 고침」 연구

Abstract

This study explores how the “War on Terror” affects lives of Americans in “Refresh, Refresh,” by Benjamin Percy. It also shows how important the politics of mourning is in constructing the subjectivity of an individual that has to face violence in post-capitalized society. This study introduces two types of the politics of mourning: mourning by state apparatus and by individual civilian. As a recruitment officer, Dave Lightener performs the state-sanctioned mourning that tries to gloss over the agony of war, by wearing a black arm band and uttering the words, “I regret to inform you.” The purpose of mourning by the state apparatuses is to hide the war’s failures and to maintain authority over the people. On the other hand, Josh, the narrator, and Gordon, Josh’s friend, both of whose fathers went to Iraq to fight in the war on terror, support the mourning by the individual civilian. Actually, they don’t know how to grow up like their fathers or how to pray for their safety, so they just push the mail refresh button to check if their fathers have written. However, when they have to accept their fathers’ deaths, they are ashamed of their inability to criticize Dave’s hypocrisy and the absurdity of post capitalized society and ashamed of their ignorance of their fathers’ personalities. In the end, they decide to join the U.S. Marines because they want to know how their fathers died in Iraq so they can mourn their fathers. Ironically, to learn this, they have to sacrifice their own lives.