아쿠타가와 류노스케의 『마각(馬の脚)』론 - 역사통찰과 언론비판을 중심으로 -

Abstract

Horse Legs of Akutagawa Ryunosuke is a short story in the background of the imperial Japanese invasion of China. Along with this backdrop, it needs to understand the overall configuration and contents, especially the meaning of ‘Horse legs’ and the particular cynicism in the end. The word ‘Horse legs’, having an insight of a long history of war of aggression, denote the ambition of Japanese imperialism to invade the continent. Due to the media control on the war footing, calling it ‘fairy tale for adults’, Akutagawa criticized Japanese war of aggression and controlled media with symbolic techniques. In the work, representative organizations such as a major company Mitsubishi(三菱), The Suncheon Daily News(順天時報) -chinese newspaper that Japan published, Doujin hospital(同仁病院) established in Beijing, and Hongwanji(本願寺派) working as propagators, and names of characters were set as symbolic proper nouns that imply the circumstances at that time. Among others, the editorial on Suncheon Daily News shows the reality of chinese newspaper(Japan published) that conceal and fabricate the truth. So, Main character Hanzaburou(忍野半三郎), a newly-knowledged recruit after graduating from college worked in a Mitsubishi company in China, he was transmuted to a <horse's leg> regardless of his intention. In other words, he is forcefully used for invading continents on the front line. Therefore, this work is relevant to neither a matter of imitation and influence of classics nor privacy of the author, but a strong criticism of controlled media which led the war of aggression.