자먀틴의 소설 『우리들』 연구

Abstract

The novel 『We』 written in 1921 by E. Zamiatin is renowned as the first work of the Anti-Utopian Genre in the history of Russian literature. The importance of this genre, possibly one of the Fantasy Genre, was significantly influenced by G. Wells, whose works had exhibited a variety of novelty and creative styles to E. Zamiatin. As a matter of fact, Zamiatin, from the very beginning of this creative writing, had a great interest for the tradition of British Utopian Literature continued from T. More to G. Wells. The characteristics of Zamiatin as a writer are conspicuous in lots of his writings such as his short stories, novel, and essays. Although the majority of literary critics consider Zamiatin's work a political satire on Soviet Totalitarianism, his novel 『We』 can be regarded as a pure satirical literature far beyond political satirical literature in that it conveys a warning message not only to the Soviet Society, but also to all mankind in the future. Furthermore, Zamiatin's novel 『We』 gains the possibility of being a philosophical novel in the sense that it portrays the process of a hero, D-503, struggling to find his lost ego. In this respect, Zamiatin' novel 『We』 deserves to be rated higher in literary merit than the other works by Orwell or Huxley.