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초록

This paper aims to examine humans and their statuses within social structures through the metaphor of dogs. To this end, the study focuses on “The Man Called Dog,” the second episode in Kim Byung-Un’s short story collection Three Sad Incidents with Dogs. The results of the study are summarized as follows. First, from the per- spective of social stigma and exclusion, the name “Gaehyungman” given to Park Hyung-man functions not merely as a nickname but as a symbolic device that isolates and otherizes the individual from the community. This reflects a social mechanism of normativization and exclusion through language. Second, in terms of the ambivalence between conformity and rebellion, Park Hyung-man complies with the system while occasionally displaying speech and actions that create fissures within it. This reveals the complex and unstable position of the human subject within a power structure. Third, through the analysis of other dog-like figures, it is shown that the managers and the narrator (“I”), who surround Park Hyung-man, also internalize or uncritically adopt canine attributes. Through the dog metaphor, they provide the very conditions that enable his othering. Through this analysis, the study demonstrates that the metaphor of the dog is not a mere rhetorical figure but serves as a powerful analytical tool to ex- pose the operations of power, stigma, and relational dynamics within human society. This paper is significant in that it critically illuminates human relation- ships and social realities through animal metaphors and contributes to expanding the scope of literary analysis in human–animal studies.

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