『죽은 남자의 핸드폰』(Dead Man’s Cell Phone)을 들뢰즈의 공간 철학으로 읽기

Abstract

This paper examines Dead Man’s Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl, based on spatial concepts of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. The characters who represent modern people in the digital world live in static solitary worlds. They disconnect their relationships with other people and prefer to remain stuck in spaces which are stagnant, formed and fixed. This is evaluated as ‘striated space.’ Lonely Jean happens to answer the dead Gordon’s cell phone in a cafe, and she comes to be connected with his family and his mistress. This sets her off into adventure in a strange new world. She offers her condolences to his family and mistress by confabulating a story that turns Gordon into a better person than he really was. Jean’s remake of poor dead Gordon, allows them to confront sorrow and loss, and so they accept his death more easily. Now they may live their own lives to plan and meet challenges to make a brighter future. Thus, they go for ‘smooth space,’ which could be called flowing, nomadic and directed toward production. In the end, Gordon’s cell phone functions as ‘holey space’ which can be said to bypass smooth space and striated space.