ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This paper analyzes the phenomena of disgust in our society. It specifies the structural and cultural backgrounds that have given rise to them and suggests alternatives to them. It is not aimed at the concrete analysis of a certain disgust. It takes as the primary goal to theoretically approach to the structure of our society and its change through which the disgust phenomena have emerged. The first background forming disgust in modern society is ‘pluralization.’ The pluralization of our society dismantles the culture of ‘taken-for-grantedness’ which has offered the sense of stability to the lives and identities of individuals in the past. Pluralization increases individual choice and autonomy, but at the same time it also creates anxieties caused by the disappearance of naturalness. The disgust of modern society is a negative reaction to this process of pluralization. The competitions, injustices, and the routinized social contempts caused by the neo-liberalism are also said to be crucial cultural factors that have created disgust. The sense of shamefulness and the sense of insultedness brought about by social contempts make others into objects of disgust, not objects of recognition. The traditional culture of quasi-familism that still remains tends to further strengthen social contempts toward people outside the group. Given the backgrounds in which the disgust has emerged, two main ways will be suggested to confront the prevalent phenomena of disgust. The first one is through the aesthetic experiences, which are expected to disconnect from the traditional context that has enabled the disgust. ‘Aesthetic experience’ breaks off the fixed framework of perception and enables the concrete recognition and sympathy for others. An aesthetic approach could be a strategy for overcoming the disgust, given the fact that the disgust is also a matter of emotion. The second one is to form social solidarity based on differences. Differences should not be subject to disgust, but to equal recognition. This is the task of forming a discourse community called as ‘inclusive we’ and building a new hegemony. An aesthetic experience could play an important role in spreading the recognition and forming the ‘solidarity of differences’.

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