영화 속의 중세 이미지 = The Images of Middle Ages in the Contemporary Movies

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper examines the representation of the Middle Ages in the movies, such as Kingdom of Heaven, 2001: Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and The Seventh Seal. The movies concerning the Middle Ages are roughly divided into three types: the 'historical' movies showing the events or personalities of the Middle Ages, the movies exploiting the medieval narratives and images, and the movies reproducing the scene or the equipments of the precedent movies of medievalism.
First, the so-called 'historical' movie has multi-temporality. For example, Kingdom of Heaven has three layer. At the bottom, lies the "Hero's journey" formulated by Joseph Campbell. This story pattern, whose examples are found throughout history and all over the world, draws a large audience to the movie. The second layer, above the story of hero, is the story of King Arther and the Holy Grail. Based on the celtic myth and combined with the christianity, this story continues to generate the western imagination from Middle Ages to present. So it is periodically less longer and geographically more limited than the first layer, i.e. hero's journey. The third and top layer is contemporary value, which is easily noticed by to the spectator. It is the democratic credo and(or) the religious tolerance, which is needed more than ever. In a word, the movies, picturing the medieval historical events, address the multi-temporal view of the events and show the transformation of the conceptions and images about the Middle Ages.
Second, Some movies, such as 2001: Space Odyssey and Star Wars, borrows the narratives or the images from the Middle Ages. It is remarkable that SF movies use the medieval equipments and mise-en-scène reminding the Middle Ages, in depicting the future as a dark and gloomy world. This relation between the future and the Middle Ages reflects the uncertainty about the future. This pessimistic visualization of the future is the mirror of the negative point of view on the Middle Ages.
Third, other movies reproduce the motif of the dark Middle Ages, portrayed in the precedent movies. For example, The Seventh Seal provides the movies of the Monty Python group and Scream with the images such as Grim Reaper, Danse macabre, the plague, the flagellant, the distorted images of monks. So the negative impression of the Middle Ages has been widely accepted.
These reproductions and acceptances are based on the modernity. On the basis of the reason and rationality of the modern age, the Middle Age, considered as the Age of Christianity, is regarded as the Dark Age; so it could be excluded from the western history. In this context, the orientalism is applied not only geographically, but periodically; and the Middle Age is a component of the western history, but attached to the Orient.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper examines the representation of the Middle Ages in the movies, such as Kingdom of Heaven, 2001: Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and The Seventh Seal. The movies concerning the Middle Ages are roughly divided into three types: the 'historical' movies showing the events or personalities of the Middle Ages, the movies exploiting the medieval narratives and images, and the movies reproducing the scene or the equipments of the precedent movies of medievalism.
First, the so-called 'historical' movie has multi-temporality. For example, Kingdom of Heaven has three layer. At the bottom, lies the "Hero's journey" formulated by Joseph Campbell. This story pattern, whose examples are found throughout history and all over the world, draws a large audience to the movie. The second layer, above the story of hero, is the story of King Arther and the Holy Grail. Based on the celtic myth and combined with the christianity, this story continues to generate the western imagination from Middle Ages to present. So it is periodically less longer and geographically more limited than the first layer, i.e. hero's journey. The third and top layer is contemporary value, which is easily noticed by to the spectator. It is the democratic credo and(or) the religious tolerance, which is needed more than ever. In a word, the movies, picturing the medieval historical events, address the multi-temporal view of the events and show the transformation of the conceptions and images about the Middle Ages.
Second, Some movies, such as 2001: Space Odyssey and Star Wars, borrows the narratives or the images from the Middle Ages. It is remarkable that SF movies use the medieval equipments and mise-en-scène reminding the Middle Ages, in depicting the future as a dark and gloomy world. This relation between the future and the Middle Ages reflects the uncertainty about the future. This pessimistic visualization of the future is the mirror of the negative point of view on the Middle Ages.
Third, other movies reproduce the motif of the dark Middle Ages, portrayed in the precedent movies. For example, The Seventh Seal provides the movies of the Monty Python group and Scream with the images such as Grim Reaper, Danse macabre, the plague, the flagellant, the distorted images of monks. So the negative impression of the Middle Ages has been widely accepted.
These reproductions and acceptances are based on the modernity. On the basis of the reason and rationality of the modern age, the Middle Age, considered as the Age of Christianity, is regarded as the Dark Age; so it could be excluded from the western history. In this context, the orientalism is applied not only geographically, but periodically; and the Middle Age is a component of the western history, but attached to the Orient.

참고문헌 (Reference)

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