『제5도살장』에 재현된 트랄파마도어 행성의 서사적 기능 연구

Abstract

2차 세계대전을 소재로 한 이 작품은 1960년대의 혼란했던 시대에 또 다른 인류의 비극을 초래하는 것을 두려워하는 작가의 의도가 짙게 깔린 반전 소설이다. 잔혹한 전쟁의 폐허를 직접 겪은 작가가 자신의 분신과도 같은 주인공을 빌어 인간의 이성과 상식으로 이해할 수 없는 세상의 부조리를 고발한다. 환상의 세계인 트랄파마도어라는 외계행성으로 시간여행을 함으로써 지치고 힘든 이들에게 잠시나마 웃음과 위로를 전해 주려 하지만, 그 이면에 작용하는 부정적인 측면인 숙명론과 도덕적 불감증등 양면성을 엿 볼 수 있다.; The purpose of this article is to examine the concrete role of the alien planet Tralfamador, a science-fantasy element that shows the greatest features of post-modernism works in postmodernism age. The reason why this novel is one of the most important and representative postmodernism fictions is that it has a metafiction technique, a plot without an end, not one composed of cause and effect, and a structure creating a science-fanciful atmosphere by introducing the alien planet. As a story about the allied air attack on Dresden on February 13, 1945, this novel includes the intention to criticize an irony that science and technology, invented for the better future of man, were used in the massacre that caused human destruction and an incomprehensible and unreasonable situation due to the brutality of war through it in terms of human normal reason and rationality. The period background in which this novel was written was the late 1960s. This is a vague era in which political, social and cultural situations are confused and the boundaries between reality and fiction, history and autobiography are broken down. Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is more meaningful as the United States, which has the initiative to establish order in the world, reached the pinnacle of a postmodern era through a reckless genocide in the Vietnam War, anti-war movements in the United States, the assassination of President Kennedy, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the Black Civil Rights Movement, etc. Contemporary writers realized that traditional narrative techniques were not enough to express the situation of the postmodern era. The introduction of an alien planet called Tralfamadore was essential to illuminate their reality and to present their vision in the future, coming closer to the public in a time situation that can not distingush between reality and fantasy more differently by breaking the frame of the existing narrative way. Such an alien planet, Tralfamadore was not only suitable for expressing the political, social and cultural absurdities of time that had been entangled with chaos and disorder in its time due to its destruction and distortion, but also helped readers to realize their situation from an objective point of view. Tralfamadore offers hope to readers who wander in chaos and disorder with the view that they should see nothing negative but positive. However, there is a downside to being evasive and unable to face reality, as it tends to ignore and overlook negative things all the time when you see only positive things. It should also be noted that the fatalism of Tlafamadore can also cause passive, pessimistic and moral insensitivity to readers. Vonnegut is the person who has suffered the horrible war which was devastated by participating in World War II himself. Until 1969, when he wrote this novel, he spent over 20 years looking for the most effective way to uncover the terrible truth without forgetting the horrors of the war. In the meantime, it must have been a time demand to release the science fiction novel and the war novel, Slaughterhouse-Five that breaks the existing framework in line with the background of the late 1960s. As the author has infinitely struggled to write this war novel, it should be recognized that the introduction of Tralpamadore, a scientific fantasy element that is a representative feature of postmodernism, was the most effective option because the conventional narrative method cannot express the horrors of war.