타자성의 재발견: 토마스 하디와 테드 휴즈의 애도의 시학

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the intersubjective relationship depicted in Hardy’s Poems of 1912-1913 and Hughes’s Birthday Letters, resorting to Levinas’s philosophical view of otherness. Hardy’s Poems of 1912-1913 foreground the movement of Emma’s ghost and thereby liberate the deceased wife from the masculine confinement she experienced during her real life. Furthermore, the poet-speaker expresses his wish to listen closely to the voiceless ghost rather than merely utter his own thought. Several poems contained in Hughes’s Birthday Letters revolve around the failed communication between the poet and his late wife. Yet, other poems appear to be aware of the ethical relationship with ‘other,’ who cannot be subsumed under the control of the male subject’s perception. Although the two poets start to realize a possibility of genuinely intersubjective relationship only after their wives’ death, their poetics of mourning awakens the readers and leads them to recognize their responsibility toward ‘other.’

This paper aims to discuss the intersubjective relationship depicted in Hardy’s Poems of 1912-1913 and Hughes’s Birthday Letters, resorting to Levinas’s philosophical view of otherness. Hardy’s Poems of 1912-1913 foreground the movement of Emma’s ghost and thereby liberate the deceased wife from the masculine confinement she experienced during her real life. Furthermore, the poet-speaker expresses his wish to listen closely to the voiceless ghost rather than merely utter his own thought. Several poems contained in Hughes’s Birthday Letters revolve around the failed communication between the poet and his late wife. Yet, other poems appear to be aware of the ethical relationship with ‘other,’ who cannot be subsumed under the control of the male subject’s perception. Although the two poets start to realize a possibility of genuinely intersubjective relationship only after their wives’ death, their poetics of mourning awakens the readers and leads them to recognize their responsibility toward ‘other.’