Postmoderni Angst in zen budizem v A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki

The article addresses issues concerning objective, or systemic, violence which legitimizes and conditions other forms of violence – psychological, economic, sexual, physical, etc. These issues are approached from the perspective of frustrations and traumas experienced by individuals as a consequence of the shift of the sociohistorical paradigm, which has so far been principally governed by the mechanisms and interests of global postindustrial capitalism. Through the analysis of the status of reality and subject in A Tale for the Time Being, a 2013 novel by Japanese-American author Ruth Ozeki, I first identify the violent and traumatic aspects of contemporary conditions as experienced by the protagonists in the novel. Then, Ozeki’s literary scenario for improving quotidian existence of individuals via internalization of Dogen’s Zen Buddhist principles is assessed from the perspective of the philosophical definitions of the categories of subject and reality in postmodernity, as well as in relation to the actual conditions in the global consumerist societies of the digital age. The article maintains that Ozeki’s solution of the protagonists’ existential crises is rather significant since the fundamental premises of Zen Buddhism correspond to the metaphysical structuring of postmodernity. The novel hence illuminates the productive facets of the fractal nature of postmodern individuals, as well as the role literature can play in their concretisation.Članek se giblje v območju objektivnega nasilja, ki legitimizira oziroma so mu inherentne druge oblike nasilja – od psihološkega, ekonomskega in vrstniškega do spolnega in fizičnega. Obravnava ga z vidika frustracij, ki jih sodobnim posameznikom povzroča sprememba družbeno-zgodovinske paradigme, ki jo za zdaj odločilno zaznamujejo interesi in zakonitosti globalnega postindustrijskega kapitalizma. Z analizo resničnosti in subjekta v romanu A Tale for the Time Being (2013) japonsko-ameriške pisateljice Ruth Ozeki bom izpostavila in utemeljila nasilne oziroma travmatične vidike aktualnih razmer za posameznike v romanu. Nato bom ovrednotila pisateljičin literarni scenarij možnosti izboljšanja vsakodnevne izkušnje posameznikov s ponotranjenjem osnovnih načel Dogenove šole zen budizma s stališča filozofskih opredelitev subjekta in resničnosti v postmoderni ter aktualnih razmer v globalnih potrošniških družbah digitalne dobe. Namen članka je pokazati, da je avtoričina na videz naivna rešitev eksistencialnih kriz glavnih likov nadvse relevantna, saj osnovne premise zen budizma ustrezajo metafizičnemu ustroju postmoderne. Roman potemtakem omogoča vpogled v konstruktivne vidike fraktalne narave postmodernih subjektov ter v vlogo, ki jo lahko ima književnost pri njihovi realizaciji