Passage offer initiation story is a type of story which a main character whose recognition of ego and the world is immature goes through a series of pain and hardship so that he moves forward to become a more mature human than the previous stage and combines to achieve ontologistic change. Like this, definition of passage offer initiation story is focused on human beings go through passage offer process to be ‘a born again mature human.’ However, as we all know, all the passage offers a human experience during one’s life do not necessarily guarantee internal mature and spiritual development. Maybe the meaning of passage offer involves that in order to get in to public order ‘one should be mature’ which is a obligatory forcing and one-sided violence. Therefore, in this article, previously suggested meaning of passage offer will be questioned and consider the appearance of the main agent who does not become a born again mature human due to set in pathological symptoms or experiencing negative change of awareness during the process of passage offer.
In this article, a short story 「As you know mother」 written by Chun Un Young. 「As you know mother」 is a story about a head of household in his fifties who happen to encounter ‘the death of his mother’ and his psychological conflict and symptoms because of it. ‘Death of someone you love’ is a passage offer of life that everyone has to undergo while living in this world. We suffer from extreme grief, guilt and anxiety when someone you love leaves the world but by praying for the repose of the deceased and mourning, we should escape from the spiritual pain. That is, by accepting the fact that the deceased does not exist in this world we should come back to reality from the shock of loss. However, the main character in as you know mother fulfills the form of ‘offer’ checking peacefully lying mother’s death and conduct a funeral service but could not accept the death and set in pathological symptom and did not ‘pass’ the shadow of the dead.
The first symptom that the main character who lost his mother encounters extreme anxiety and psychological regression. Then, what is the fundamental thing that caused his anxiety? That will be the loss of object a represented as mother. object a represents loss of others and means absence itself rather absence of certain target. Loss of object a causes him psychological distress, ‘anxiety’, and extreme anxiety also causes the symptom of ‘regression.’ The second symptom that the main character shows while suffering from anxiety is ‘illusion (auditory hallucination).’ Due to loss of object a, when his anxiety hits the limit he calls illusion in his unconsciousness and delude himself into being together with the dead and tries hard to ignore his crack. Later, he give a birth to his mother through his throat and become a complete main agent who does not feel any crack. He is eaten into by object a with mother’s appearance.
Every human being experiences variety of life passage offers whether one intends or not. Therefore, humans undergo psychological conflict or acute mental stress like the main character in the story, and such suppression is revealed as pathological symptom.

천운영의 단편 소설 「엄마도 아시다시피」는 50대 가장이 마주하게 된 ‘어머니의 죽음’이라는 인생의 통과제의(喪)에서 주체에게 발현된 여러 가지 증상과 애도의 실패 과정을 그리고 있다. 「엄마도 아시다시피」의 주인공은 평온하게 눈을 감은 어머니의 죽음을 확인한 후 절차에 따라 어머니의 장례식을 치름으로써 ‘제의’의 형식을 수행하지만, 타자의 죽음을 받아들이지 못하고 병리적 증상에 고착됨으로써 망자의 그늘을 ‘통과’하지 못한다. 어머니로 둔갑한 대상과 환상에 완전히 잠식되어 버린 것이다.
이처럼 「엄마도 아시다시피」는 기존에 천운영이 보여준 작품 경향에서 벗어나 여성만이 겪을 수 있는 특수한 사건이나 소재가 아닌, ‘어머니의 죽음’이라는 보편적 사건을 소재로 삼고 있으며, 자궁, 젖가슴 등 여성의 전유물이나 여성성으로 대표되는 신체의 일부가 아닌 법과 질서를 상징하는 ‘목소리’가 소설의 화두로 던져진다. 뿐만 아니라 이 소설에서 사건을 이끌어 가는 화자는 여성이 아닌 남성이며, 이야기의 전개는 여성 주체가 아닌 남성 주체의 행동과 심리 변화에 초점을 맞추어 서술된다.
따라서 본고는 남성과 여성의 공통분모이자 절대적 존재인 ‘엄마’, 그 중에서도 ‘어머니의 죽음’을 소재로 하고 있는 천운영의 소설 「엄마도 아시다시피」를 분석함으로써, 죽음의 통과제의에서 병리적 증상에 고착되어 성숙한 인간으로 거듭나지 못하는 주체의 모습을 고찰해 보았다.