포스트휴먼 메타연극에 나타난 가상현실: 루시 프레블의 『슈가 신드롬』과 제니퍼 헤일리의 『네더』

초록

The advance of scientific technology made it possible for embodiment of information to be reified in the cyber space which allows the presence of disembodiment. However the presence of disembodiment can provoke the unforeseen and immoral variables in real life. In view of Katherine Hayles, the dialectic interplay between presence and randomness gives rise to mutation. A random event intervenes to affect the material world, leading toward the negative relation between human and inhuman. Lucy Prebble’s The Sugar Syndrome and Jennifer Haley’s The Nether deal with the potential hazard of the dialectic presence/randomness. The virtual reality in the former is the chatting space in the early 2000s and the latter is the unethical community in the future. The cyberspace in these two works is disparate and disrupted one, mirroring the characters’ inner conflict caused by the disparity between reality and virtuality. Additionally the digital world as a refuge to resolve the hidden sexual desire, has an effect on the real human presence. Thus this paper examines how the issues that are resulted from disembodiment of virtuality influence realities of life in posthuman eras.

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