라이트노벨 정체성의 계보학 = The Genealogy of the Identity of Light Novel - Focused on the Self-consciousness of its Texts and the Communication Structure with its Readers

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines ‘Light Novel’, the representative narrative of ‘Otaku(オタク)’ culture, one of the original Japanese subcultures. Light Novel has a history of almost thirty years and is still on the process of the formation of its identity. In this context, this paper aims to display its diachronic transition points of 30-year Light Novel history focused on some watershed points of its process of development. In dealing with those wakes of its history, this article elaborates the changes of self-consciousness of its texts centered on the usage of first-person pronouns and the communication structure centered on the psychological empathy with readers. My attention is directed to the four conversion points of its history: Slayers series by Hajime Kanzaka from the late 1980s, Boogiepop and Others by Kouhei Kadono in the late 1990s, Suzumiya Haruhi series by Nagaru Tanigawa from the mid 2000s, and a series of works of Sugaru Miaki in the 2010s.
Slayers series by Hajime Kanzaka, the starting point of Light Novel, had performed the girlish identity using a first-person pronoun ‘あたし(a-ta-si)’, which showed the endeavor to separate itself from conventional classical novels. Boogiepop and Others by Kouhei Kadono paraded a variety of first-person pronouns such as ‘僕/ぼく(bo-ku)’, ‘私/わたし(wa-ta-si)’, and ‘俺/おれ(o-re)’. The readers are left intrigued to deduce the big picture of the entire plot from each fragmented first-person pronouns’ stories. Suzumiya Haruhi series by Nagaru Tanigawa has employed two personal pronouns, ‘you’(they call themselves using the feminine personal pronouns such as ‘私/わたし’ or ‘あたし’) and ‘me’(俺/おれ). In so doing, Otaku readers are able to emphasize with the texts of Light Novel. A series of works of Sugaru Miaki in 2010s share the sensibilities of coeval Satori generation(さとり世代) in the present Japan: they discover the new surviving strategies from the deepest unconscious death drive. As we have seen, Light Novel will be predicted to keep their composing and flexible identities to the passing of times.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 들어가며 - 라이트노벨, 오타쿠 문화의 내러티브
• Ⅱ. 상실과 애도의 기원 - 『슬레이어즈(スレイヤ-ズ)』 시리즈
• Ⅲ. 나르시시즘적으로 분화된 자아들 - 『부기팝은 웃지 않는다(ブギーポップは笑わない)』
• Ⅳ. 멜랑콜리의 주기적 귀환 - ‘스즈미야 하루히(涼宮ハルヒ)’ 시리즈
• Ⅴ. 죽음충동으로부터의 법칙 - 미아키 스가루(三秋縋)의 라이트노벨
• Ⅵ. 나가며 - 라이트노벨, 역동적 정체성의 포지셔닝 전략
• 참고문헌
• 【논문초록】