A Meaning of the Healing Writing Shown in a Text - Focusing on the Movie Titled The Reader(2008) and the Novel Titled Heuksan(黑山, 2011)

Abstract

This study shows that characters could heal their wounds through a self-therapeutic process. In other words, people who act spontaneously and intensely in the therapeutic literature process positively impacted their own therapy mechanism. In the literature text, we could find that characters can not only build their own identities with literature works but also acquire mental compensation through reconciliation with their pasts. This process is only possible when the ‘self’ expresses and speaks his/her own story. In the study, the therapeutic literature or therapy with literature context is the result of tracing back to their memory and the continuous introspection. Considering the therapeutic process in literature texts and characters, we could find the solution to a controversial 21C mental illness following the footsteps of our ancestors including German predecessors in literature. We can seek the examples in text. Hannah and Michael represent the analog-style reading and writing in the era of the information technology, and correspond to the main character in Heuksan(黑山) who strolls to interact with nature, writes the memories of the past, and communicates with neighbors. The characters in this study indicate those kinds of lifestyles. In conclusion, the object of the therapeutic literature is the consolation-oriented therapy process between two selves; one that a character created and the other that self expressed.