The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology (문화기술의 융합)

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Racial Triangulation in Steph Cha's Your House Will Pay

스텝 차의 『너의 집이 대가를 치를 것이다』 에 나타난 인종 삼각구도

  • Received : 2022.12.20
  • Accepted : 2023.03.07
  • Published : 2023.03.31
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Abstract

This paper is aimed at exploring a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural trianglulation of Black, White, and Korean American race relations connected to a large-scale disturbance in the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The second generation Korean American Steph Cha's Your House Will Pay (2019) focuses on a social portrait of the racially marginalized beings as Korean immigrant merchants and African American native consumers. This family saga explores issues resulting from racial hierarchy, racialized stereotypes, and historical marginalization in the internalized sociometry of race and class inequality. This work grapples with issues involved in a sociocultural web of racial triangulation under the white dominant structure, and ensuing intergroup conflicts of social minorities in the economic geography of urban space. It opens up civil discussions for transracial, transethnic, and transcultural interactions and coexistence. It ultimately leads to extending young people's minds for a deep understanding of the socioecomonic landscape of racial matrix, and enhancing the cultural literacy for a better awareness of social empathy and the communal respect of life.

본 논문은 다인종, 다민족, 다문화적 미국사회에서, 한인, 백인, 흑인의 관계로 형성된 인종 삼각구도의 양상과 의미를 1992년 로스앤젤레스 인종 폭동을 중심으로 분석한다. 한국계 미국 이민 2세대 작가 스텝 차(Steph Cha)의 『너의 집이 대가를 치를 것이다』 (Your House Will Pay, 2019)를 그 분석의 대상으로 하여, 인종 삼각구도와 연관된 인종서열 관념, 인종적 상투형, 인종간 분리, 역사적 주변화, 문화적 편견의 쟁점을 살펴본다. 대도시 공간에서의 인종폭력에 얽힌 한인가족과 흑인가족의 좌절과 분노, 갈등과 증오, 트라우마와 죄의식을 통해 백인주도 사회의 다인종 간 상호관계를 탐색한다. 특히 LA 인종 폭동의 도화선이 된 한인 이민 상점주와 흑인 토착시민 소비자 배후에 자리잡은 이민자와 토착시민의 갈등 구조, 이민 소자본 자영업 공간의 특성, 이민경제적 양상을 중심으로, 대도시 폭력의 쟁점을 탐색한다. 흑백관계, 한백관계, 한흑관계로 이어지는 인종 삼각구도를 읽어내는 과정을 통해, 미국의 국가적 자원이자 역사적 갈등의 원천이 되는 인종 쟁점의 사회경제적 매트릭스에 대한 문화적 문식성을 강화하고, 초인종적, 초민족적, 초문화적 공감과 생명 공동체로서의 미래지향적 시민의식의 확장을 모색한다.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

이 논문은 2021년도 남서울대학교 학술연구비 지원에 의해 연구되었음.

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