「大導寺信輔の半生」小考 - 회화적 기법을 중심으로 -

Abstract

Published in the magazine Chuoukouron in January 1925, the work Daidojishinskenohanshow(A Half of Shinske's Life at Daidoji Temple) by Akutagawa Ryunosuke is a six-part biographical novel. As the subtitle Aruseishintekihuwkeiga (A Mental Landscape) suggests, the novel presents a mental landscape of how the writer's inner world is projected into the past through retrospection. Though lacking a central storyline, the work gives the reader an impression as real as a painting because images in one episode stand in sharp contrast with those in another. In addition, the novel starts with a trifling episode and reaches a climax at the end, which succeeds in reminding the reader that even biographical prose feels like a painting in a frame. The painting is not as colorful as those works of an artist at his best, but is rather one that looks dark overall without strong, dynamic hues because the narrator reflects upon the past from his melancholy perspective at the moment. This study shows that the distinctive feature of the work lies in wise use of painting techniques such as composition and contrasts. More specifically, how such techniques are materialized in literary work is dealt with in terms of the composition and the contrastive expression of contradictions. The poetic ethos manifested in the novel is also analyzed to better understand how Akutagawa's literary spirit of pictorial expression came into being. The study concludes that the novel Daidojishinskenohanshow is not an incomplete work failing to solve the problem of self, but an excellent one graphically showing the poetic ethos and aesthetic values of the writer.