영화 「사울의 아들」과 함께 소설 「라울전」 읽기

Abstract

In this article, I look at Choi In-hoon's 1959 short story 「Raul's story」along with the 2015 film 「Son of Saul」directed by László Nemes. These two works openly and indirectly evokes the Saul-Paul discourse. This paper is close to the current view, which explores the inner meaning of the creations containing the religious imagination using this discourse. The film 「Son of Saul」depicted the process of symbolic resurrection breaching the boundaries between special customs and universality of human beings around the burial of a boy in the Holocaust situation. In the meantime, 「Raul story」handled the corresponding period of Saul-Paul's material and constructed a new point outside the case through the fictional character Raul. In this article, the characters of both works are dying without any influence on the outside situation. The work which is closer to the "faithfulness of the event" seems to be the 「Son of Saul」which is more gruesome with the tragic situation of the case. 「Raul's story」rather features the trace of existence that is excluded from the scene of the event. This is significant because it shows another exceptional condition different from visible and realistic misfortune. However, there remains a controversy regarding the relationship a similar 'Raul-type figure' has to do with historic and social responsibility. Choi In-hoon's other works, which are noteworthy about this issue, are the novel 『Typhoon』 and the play 「Hans and Gretel」which extended the background to overseas. The main characters are deeply thoughtful and try to make existential choice, but they reflect on their own responsibility while making excuses for their own mistakes. Raul corresponds to the roots of them in these works rather than most intellectuals of overall Choi In-hoon's literature.