만화 『토지』의 각색 리듬 연구－관념서사와 시각적 강세화를 중심으로

Abstract

Pak Kyongni’s novel Land has been adapted seven times into other forms of media products such as radio drama, cinema, television drama, music theater, and comics. Media adaptation originates from the artist’s desire to represent the original work. The novel’s most recent work of adaptation is its adaptation into comics. This paper aims to reveal the significance of the rhythmic element that influences the artists’ visual transformation and adaptation of the original text, by analyzing the comics adaptation of Land. The comics adaptation of Land is created by two comics artists. The original novel Land consists of five parts, of which Part 1 is reworked into comics by the cartoonist 'O Se Young', and Part 2 to Part 5 by the cartoonist 'Pak Myung Un'. Part 1 is made into 7 serial comic books and Part 2 to Part 5 into another 10 comic books. Both artists focuses on the visualization of the ideological narratives of the original text as its thematic elements. The difference between the two artists’ imagination and their mode of spatialization creates different rhythms for their works. The artists utilize a number of visual devices in order to create the rhythms for the reader in the process of converting the epic novel into a visual narrative. For example, the operation of deformant is maximized in O Se Young’s Part 1, in which the elements appear abstract. In Pak Myeong Un’s adaptation of Part 2 onwards the figure of deformant is reduced, while more emphasis is placed on the representation of space, with the relative sense of distance of the presented figures created through spatial expansion. It is this spatialization which creates two different rhythms. Part 1 aims to reproduce meaning through realism and abstraction. Part 1 of Land is symbolized in the comics through the use of the extreme close-up of the important elements of rhythm and deformant. Part 2 offers the reader a sense of distance between the spaces, and gives the re-signification of the meaning of narrative through its reproduction of the space. In Part 2, Pak Myeong Un aims at spatial perception changes that require the involvement of the reader to form arhythm. From this point of view, the effects of the extreme rhythmic abstraction and the variable positioning of the viewing audience correspond to the importance of accentuation that Henri Meschonnic speaks of. The visual accentuation point constructs the main elements of the rhythm of the comics. This methodology of rhythm analysis that Meschonnic suggests can be applied to the adaptation of the novel. The novel Land continues to be adapted into various forms of media. Nowadays, there are positive use of cross-media adaptations, such as adaptations of webtoon and work of fiction into movies. This paper shows the ways in which comics adaptation of Land actively re-create the narrative rhythm of the original novel to represent the novel’s thematic concern. The analysis of the rhythm through the framework of the accentuation point can be used in other media and adaptation studies. Such mode of reading of the meaning and the form of the text through rhythm analysis can also offer a methodology for creative adaptation.