이화여자대학교

초록/요약

Dutch historian Johan Huizinga used the concept of homoludence to identify humans as playful beings. In Homorudens, Huizinga argues that the essence that distinguishes humans from other animals lies in playing and that culture arises from play. In other words, the spirit of play is the source of the rich creativity that enables cultural development. In that sense, the novel’s transformative ability is the subject of exciting play that can create a new world through the formation of a relationship with the other in a variable world. The transforming being in Ghosts and Wizards (『聊齋志異』) is given a new body and then intervenes in others’ lives, drives events, and experiences another life. A new socio-cultural meaning and interpretation can be given in that the being causes friction with others, experiences tension and reconciliation, and reveals its true inner values and worldviews through bodily transformation. This paper attempts to approach various human groups’ life experiences from the perspective of creative play, noting the motif of transformation as a major driving force in the exchange between human and nonhuman beings in Ghosts and Wizards (󰡔聊齋志異󰡕). The transforming beings in Ghosts and Wizards (『聊齋志異』) are rewarded for their deficiencies by being able to transform their bodies according to arbitrary choices. They are then able to enjoy the pleasure of deviating from each other as well as play facilitated by borderless communication and the breaking down of boundaries and can even reconstruct physical time. Transformation works as a metaphor that draws out and recognizes inhuman characteristics, such as those of animals and plants, that are inherent in humans. The transformation narrative contains the process of creating an ideal self and restoring the self-identity. It fills the gap between underlying desire and the lack of reality and allows individuals to enjoy a life free from oppression. In that sense, the roots of the transformation narrative, which overcomes the lack of self and dreams of coexistence with others, lie in the ecological imagination. The transformation narrative of Ghosts and Wizards (『聊齋志異』) reproduces the possibility of coexistence through literary play in an effort not to alienate nonhuman things.