멜라머드의 『천재선수』

• 영문명: Bernard Malamud's The Natural : A Mythological Application of American Literature
• 발행기관: 한국영어교육연구학회
• 저자명: 黃致福(Chee-bok Hwang)
• 간행물 정보: 『영어교육연구』제32호, 99~123쪽, 전체 25쪽
• 주제분류: 사회과학 > 교육학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2006.05.30

영문 초록

This paper aims to illuminate the characteristics of the novel The Natural(1952) by Bernard Malamud, a Jewish-American novelist and short story writer, creating a unified vision based on the values of human. Malamud's first novel is a strang amalgam of fact and fable, the mythology, the mundane and fantasy. It concerns a character who wants to be the best baseball player ever who possess very special heroic qualities. Unfortunately, Roy Hobbs does not possess the vision necessary to see beyond his goal of breaking baseball records, which in Malamud's view means that he is interested only self-aggrandizement and not in serving humanity. In Malamud's fiction, self-centeredness is always a primal sin that is severely punished until the individual changes his attitude. The mythological is central to The Natural, and I think it is best viewed from the vantage point of the three women that Malamud presents to the protagonist, as each carries with her certain aspects of the myths and legends relevant to Roy Hobb's situation. The Natural probes the identity of everyman by means of symbolism making use of myth and realism confused with baseball as metaphor. In this novel, Malamud uses ancient fertility myth, father-son myth, seasonal cycles, myth of King Arthur and etc. Here the process that Roy is changing into a natural is well described in the action of trial and error. In conclusion I considered a mythological, moral view of Malamud, studying the process of moral growth of hero. In fact, Malamud's major concerns such as myth, suffering, Jew, and a new life are all related to his humanistic morality. He widely exposes the dignity of the human spirit searching for moral growth in the face of hardship, the existential anguish of life. So I think that Malamud intended to portray humanistic spirit to embody human intrinsic passion, meaningful suffering in life through ironical version and myth.

키워드

Bernard Malamud The Natural myth suffering Jew Arthur King American Literature Jewish-American novelist metaphor Holy Grail