1990년대를 전후로 힌디문단에서 주요 화두가 되어 오고 있는 달리뜨문학에서는 작가의 상상력보다 작가가 직접 체험한 현실, 즉 자전적인 요소가 중시되었고 그 결과 자서전이 달리뜨문학의 중심 장르가 된다. 자서전에서는 회상을 통해 정체성이 탐구되는데 달리뜨 자서전에서 탐구된 정체성은 인도사회 안에서 그들의 사회문화적 정체성이다. 달리뜨는 그들이 스스로 인식하고 선택한 사회문화적 정체성이다. 그러나 인도사회에서 그들에게 부여된 불가촉천민, 하리잔, SC (Scheduled Castes) 등과 같은 지칭을 통해 그들의 사회문화적 정체성에 관해 여러 시각이 존재하고 있음을 알 수 있다. 달리뜨작가가 보여주는 자신들에게 주어진 기존의 정체성에 대한 반응과 태도 그리고 새로운 정체성에 대한 인식과 구축을 위한 시도는 변화된 시대와 사회에서 또 다른 중요한 의미를 지닌다.
이 글에서는 힌디 달리뜨문학의 대표적인 작가, 옴쁘라까슈 발미끼의 자서전, 『주탄』의 텍스트분석을 토대로 기존의 지칭들이 내포한 사회문화적 정체성과 그들이 스스로 선택한 달리뜨라는 새로운 정체성에 대한 인식과 북부 인도에서 달리뜨들의 사회문화적 정체성에 대한 인식의 변화 그리고 새로운 정체성 구축의 문제점을 다루어 북부 인도에서 달리뜨들이 증언하고 추구하는 그들의 정체성을 구체적으로 밝히고자 한다.
Dalit literature, which has come into prominence in Hindi literary world since the 1990’s, is the product of a socio-cultural movement rooted in Dalit consciousness. Here the emphasis is placed on the authenticity of experience rather than on literary imagination. As a consequence, autobiography has become the major genre of Dalit literature. In this genre the author goes through the process of exploration of his identity by looking back upon past events and in the process also reconstructing his self-identity in the autobiography. But it is the socio-cultural identity that gets constructed in Dalit autobiography since the experience presented therein is essentially social. Dalit is a self recognized chosen socio-cultural identity which forcefully expresses the oppressed status of this socially marginalized class in Indian society. There are some other names that have been provided for this class as identity-markers, names such as Untouchable, Harijan, SC (Scheduled Castes), but these are names that this oppressed class wants to discard. . Joothan is an autobiographical account of Omprakash Valmiki’s journey from his birth moving through his upbringing as an untouchable in the newly independent India of the fifties, to his present recognition of himself as a Dalit. This transformation from the stigmatized identity of an untouchable to a self-recognized and chosen identity as a Dalit is possible only at the individual level but not at the social level. Therefore, Valmiki admits in the very last sentence of Joothan that “… in their eyes, I am only an SC, the one who stands outside the door.” Considering the term SC as a synonym of untouchable, he duly recognizes that he is just an untouchable for the caste Hindus. Thus, the present socio-cultural identity of the Dalit as described in Joothan has two aspects: first, by identifying himself as a Dalit, Valmiki struggles to realize his dream of building a society on the principles of human dignity, equality and respect at the individual level, but secondly, at the same time he cannot discard the stigmas attached to his identity as an untouchable at the social level, experiencing thereby a difficulty in entering the center stage of society from his perceived marginalized position.
Dalit literature, which has come into prominence in Hindi literary world since the 1990’s, is the product of a socio-cultural movement rooted in Dalit consciousness. Here the emphasis is placed on the authenticity of experience rather than on literary imagination. As a consequence, autobiography has become the major genre of Dalit literature. In this genre the author goes through the process of exploration of his identity by looking back upon past events and in the process also reconstructing his self-identity in the autobiography. But it is the socio-cultural identity that gets constructed in Dalit autobiography since the experience presented therein is essentially social. Dalit is a self recognized chosen socio-cultural identity which forcefully expresses the oppressed status of this socially marginalized class in Indian society. There are some other names that have been provided for this class as identity-markers, names such as Untouchable, Harijan, SC (Scheduled Castes), but these are names that this oppressed class wants to discard. . Joothan is an autobiographical account of Omprakash Valmiki’s journey from his birth moving through his upbringing as an untouchable in the newly independent India of the fifties, to his present recognition of himself as a Dalit. This transformation from the stigmatized identity of an untouchable to a self-recognized and chosen identity as a Dalit is possible only at the individual level but not at the social level. Therefore, Valmiki admits in the very last sentence of Joothan that “… in their eyes, I am only an SC, the one who stands outside the door.” Considering the term SC as a synonym of untouchable, he duly recognizes that he is just an untouchable for the caste Hindus. Thus, the present socio-cultural identity of the Dalit as described in Joothan has two aspects: first, by identifying himself as a Dalit, Valmiki struggles to realize his dream of building a society on the principles of human dignity, equality and respect at the individual level, but secondly, at the same time he cannot discard the stigmas attached to his identity as an untouchable at the social level, experiencing thereby a difficulty in entering the center stage of society from his perceived marginalized position.
