키틀러의 영화적 도플갱어 개념 재고-초기영화 <프랑켄슈타인>을 중심으로-

Abstract

This study will analyze Friedrich Kittler’s thoughts on the concept of the doppelganger via the kinetoscope film Frankenstein produced by Edison Manufacturing company. The doppelganger is a motif of major literature, in particularly in the Romanticist movement, which is aimed at reflecting the human soul. However, Kittler insisted that the concept of the doppelganger was embodied in films with different purposes and effects from literature. This can be seen in the context of media history, including the media conversion from text to film and the resulting epistemological break. This concept is also addressed within the context of film studies that aim to revealing the mechanism of screening and watching films at movie theatres. Whereas the psychoanalytic film theory of the mid-to late-20th century explains that a film screen acts as a false mirror to identify actors’ images on the screen with the audience, Kittler advances madness occurred by film technology as an aspect of the doppelganger concept as the genealogy of patients in the lunatic asylum of the past. He believes that watching a film accompanies uncanniness and unpleasantness, such as when we encounter our doppelganger. Nonetheless, given that a film is a representative entertainment that has provided pleasant experiences to the audiences since its birth, an additional hypothesis that bridges the gap between unpleasantness and entertainment is necessary. Therefore, this study will analyze the early film Frankenstein, which corresponds well with the concept of the doppelganger by Kittler, and illuminate the narrative technique of a happy ending that is hidden in the unconscious area, which weakens any unpleasantness that is caused by technology.