기사도의 변증: 사자와 동행하는 기사 에서 와일드 맨의 역할 (Dialectic of Knighthood: the Function of the Wild Man in "The Knight with the Lion")

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국고전중세르네상스영문학회
· 수록지 정보 : 고전 르네상스 영문학 / 16권 / 2호 / 57 ~ 78페이지
· 저자명 : 백정국

초록

This essay explores how the knighthood theme looming large in recent Hollywood films is related to the complex identity politics discovered in Arthurian romances, which, I hypothesize, serve as the important backdrop of the Hollywood fascination with warrior stories. Focusing on the narrative and structural correlation between the representation of Yvain and that of the “wild man” in Chrétien de Troyes’s “The Knight with the Lion,” I argue that epistemological osmosis of idenity is taking place between these two seemingly binary oppositional characters. In order to support this conceptual operation I politicize the traditional conception of chivalric sense of justice. I propose that in the Chrétien’s Arthurian romance might defines jusice, not necessarily the other way round, and that knighthood, which Yvain supposedly embodies, is not an isolated, self-sufficient but formative, developmental concept. Yvain’s self-identificaiton as a chivalric knight, and that of other Arthurian knights by extention, hinge on their conscious or unconscious affiliation with power politics and realpolitik. The blurred line of demarcation between Yvain and the wild man, and the chivalric admiration for physical power as a touchstone by which the good and the bad are defined, lead us to suspect that such popular Hollywood films as Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia and the like are disturbing reflections or refractions of the intense conflicts between the Western Powers and their opponents in the recent international political scenes. Just as Arthurian romances and their modern adaptations often rule out the possibility of happy coexsitence with cultural Others, so the Western Powers hardly dream a world of happy-togetherness. A serious moment of realization that one can be a stranger to oneself has not yet come to the modern “knights.”

영어초록

This essay explores how the knighthood theme looming large in recent Hollywood films is related to the complex identity politics discovered in Arthurian romances, which, I hypothesize, serve as the important backdrop of the Hollywood fascination with warrior stories. Focusing on the narrative and structural correlation between the representation of Yvain and that of the “wild man” in Chrétien de Troyes’s “The Knight with the Lion,” I argue that epistemological osmosis of idenity is taking place between these two seemingly binary oppositional characters. In order to support this conceptual operation I politicize the traditional conception of chivalric sense of justice. I propose that in the Chrétien’s Arthurian romance might defines jusice, not necessarily the other way round, and that knighthood, which Yvain supposedly embodies, is not an isolated, self-sufficient but formative, developmental concept. Yvain’s self-identificaiton as a chivalric knight, and that of other Arthurian knights by extention, hinge on their conscious or unconscious affiliation with power politics and realpolitik. The blurred line of demarcation between Yvain and the wild man, and the chivalric admiration for physical power as a touchstone by which the good and the bad are defined, lead us to suspect that such popular Hollywood films as Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia and the like are disturbing reflections or refractions of the intense conflicts between the Western Powers and their opponents in the recent international political scenes. Just as Arthurian romances and their modern adaptations often rule out the possibility of happy coexsitence with cultural Others, so the Western Powers hardly dream a world of happy-togetherness. A serious moment of realization that one can be a stranger to oneself has not yet come to the modern “knights.”

참고자료

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