오규원 후기 시의 생태적 특성 연구 - 브뤼노 라투르의 이론을 바탕으로 -

Abstract

This paper focuses on how individual actors form connection networks by reading Oh’s late poetry through the lens of Latour’s theory. In Oh’s poems, each of the poets plays the role of an actor. For example, “Tin Roof and Spring Rain” shows the aging and decline of a tin roof. The “scattered” and “crushed” bird droppings interact with the tin roof and promote its corrosion. As spring rain interacts with the tin roof, it washes away its surface and strips away the rust. If bird droppings are agents that bring about changes in the tin roof that accelerate
 corrosion, the spring rains are agents that bring about changes that delay this corrosion. Thus, the aging and decay of the tin roof, the presence of bird droppings, and the diversity of spring rains are all caused by the interaction of these actors. The biofilm is an experiential de facto Earth, where we live alongside other organisms in a very thin membrane, approximately the size of the Earth’s epidermis. Latour describes the critical zone as almost a biofilm. Both terms imply that there is only a small part of the Earth that humans can walk on and understand. Water and Road 1” and Water and Road 2” can also be interpreted as poems exploring the meaning of life and the change created by the interconnectedness of water, trees, and birds. What makes Oh's “Water and Road 2” so special is that it shows that the connections between actors in nature are not a given (such as the laws of nature), but the result of a struggle for survival between actors. Through this struggle, they form a network of connections and live in a biofilm, a thin and precious survival space created over the years.