A Comparative Study on Sense Utilization of Cathedral and Escorted by Light: Focused on the New Function of Expressionism

Abstract

This thesis analyzes how ‘expressionism’ is used in contemporary literature through reading Cathedral by Raymond Carver and Escorted by Lighted by hae-jin Cho. ‘Expressionism’ is an art period that appeared in the 20th century and has the aim to express a subjective psychological condition of a character. This thesis limits ‘expressionism’ to the ‘senses’ of humans. The first person and the main character of each two short-story portrays vividly the inner world of themselves through the ‘five senses’, especially the ‘sense of touch’ and the ‘sense of sight’. Furthermore, the utilization of ‘sense of touch’ and ‘sense of sight’ have the feature of the medium of the narrator to understand other people. Eventually, the ‘expressionism’ in contemporary literary works has the hopeful function of suggesting ‘the possibility of solidarity’ and beyond ‘the connection to the community’.