딜런 토머스 시에 나타난 몸— 모리스 메를로-퐁티의 몸 철학을 중심으로 = The Body in Dylan Thomas’ Poetry: Focused on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Theory of Body

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper aims to interpret Dylan Thomas’ poetry in the light of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of body opposed to Descartes’ mind-body dualism. Though never having read Merleau-Ponty’s books, Thomas writes poems centering around the body which is one of the philosophical topics of Merleau-Ponty. While Merleau-Ponty wants to establish the theory for community based on body, Thomas tries to write the poems that can be understood by the immediate sensation of the body. Writing poems on body, Thomas struggles to bring the “overclothed blindness” into the “naked vision” and to come “from darkness towards some measure of light.”
Thomas’ poems have been studied mainly on the basis of psychoanalytical approaches, which is likely to narrow a distinctive possibility of interpretation. This study focused on Merleau-Ponty’s theory of body enables us to regard Thomas as a religious poet who rethinks the sacred meanings embedded in our bodies. According to Merleau-Ponty, the world and the human body are so intricately intertwined that each object is a mirror of all others. All others could be communicated with us through bodily involvement. The concept of “flesh” introduced by Merleau-Ponty helps to fill up the gap between us and the others. Similarly, in a poem like “This Bread I Break” Thomas celebrates “flesh” bridging nature and men, men and God through the mystery of transubstantiation. Rereading poetry of Thomas based on Merleau-Ponty’s theory of body can show that lots of ambiguities of Thomas’ poetry may be deeply rooted in the sacred of body.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper aims to interpret Dylan Thomas’ poetry in the light of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of body opposed to Descartes’ mind-body dualism. Though never having read Merleau-Ponty’s books, Thomas writes poems centering around the body which is one of the philosophical topics of Merleau-Ponty. While Merleau-Ponty wants to establish the theory for community based on body, Thomas tries to write the poems that can be understood by the immediate sensation of the body. Writing poems on body, Thomas struggles to bring the “overclothed blindness” into the “naked vision” and to come “from darkness towards some measure of light.”
Thomas’ poems have been studied mainly on the basis of psychoanalytical approaches, which is likely to narrow a distinctive possibility of interpretation. This study focused on Merleau-Ponty’s theory of body enables us to regard Thomas as a religious poet who rethinks the sacred meanings embedded in our bodies. According to Merleau-Ponty, the world and the human body are so intricately intertwined that each object is a mirror of all others. All others could be communicated with us through bodily involvement. The concept of “flesh” introduced by Merleau-Ponty helps to fill up the gap between us and the others. Similarly, in a poem like “This Bread I Break” Thomas celebrates “flesh” bridging nature and men, men and God through the mystery of transubstantiation. Rereading poetry of Thomas based on Merleau-Ponty’s theory of body can show that lots of ambiguities of Thomas’ poetry may be deeply rooted in the sacred of body.

참고문헌 (Reference)

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2 Maud, Ralph, "Where Have the Old Words Got Me?: Explications of Dylan Thomas’s Collected Poems" McGill-Queen’s UP 2003

3 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, "The Visible and the Invisible" 1969

4 Merwin, W. S., "The Religious Poet in: A Casebook on Dylan Thomas" Thomas Y. Crowell Company 59-67, 1960

5 Olson, Elder, "The Poetry of Dylan Thomas" Chicago UP 1954

6 Gittins, Rob, "The Last Days of Dylan Thomas" Macdonald 1986

7 Thomas, Dylan M., "The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas" J. M. Dent 2000

8 Thomas, Dylan M., "Quite Early One Morning" J. M. Dent 1957

9 Thomas, Dylan M., "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog" Everyman’s Library 1979

10 Miller, Hillis J., "Poets of Reality: Six Twentieth-Century Writers" The Belknap of Harvard UP 1974

11 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, "Phenomenology of Perception" Routledge & Kegan Paul 2006

12 Chamberlain, Richard, "Fuse and Refuse: The Pastoral Logic of Dylan Thomas’s Poetry"

13 Davies, Aneririn Talfan, "Dylan: Druid of the Broken Body" J. M. Dent 1964

14 Wittreich, Joseph Anthony, "Dylan Thomas’ Conception of Poetry: A Debt to Blake in: English Langage Notes" 197-200, 1969

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19 Moynihan, William T., "Craft and Art of Dylan Thomas" Cornell UP 1966

20 Thomas, Dylan M., "Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas" New Directions Book 1957

21 Tindall, William York, "A Reader’s Guide to Dylan Thomas" The Noonday P 1962