J. M. 쿳시의 야만인을 기다리며와 주제 사라마구의 눈먼 자들의 도시를 통해 본 인간의 ‘눈멂’이 갖는 상징적 의미

In this article, I address how blindness has held a particular fascination in literature due to the fact that the loss of sight, an internal state of disaster, is ironically assumed to be a sign of wisdom or maturity. In J.M. Coetzee’s novel Waiting for the Barbarians and José Saramago’s novel Blindness, however, blindness is primarily used as a sign of the symbolic transformation process in which blindness reinforces characters such as the Magistrate, the doctor’s wife, etc. in the process of becoming animal. In both novels, blindness or suffering can function as a source of transforming a human from a citizen into a barbarian, or from a majoritarian into a woman/minoritarian. To articulate the concept, the concept of “becoming animal” by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and the theory of torture by Elaine Scarry are used as a metaphor to say that the animality is exposed when the suffering is forced against their will. In this regard, I argue that in both novels, many chose to be an animal when they were deprived of their sight or social position. But a small group of people (doctor’s wife, the magistrate, etc) refused to be an animal by accepting the process of becoming-woman or becoming minoritarian. I argue that their choice confirms that we gain insight by accepting our limits of moral blindness.