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On the current significance of Mighty Baby seen through the movie The Witch

  • Journal of Korean Literature
  • 2021, (43), pp.343-380
  • DOI : 10.52723/JKL.43.343
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Literature
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature
  • Received : March 31, 2021
  • Accepted : May 10, 2021
  • Published : May 31, 2021

Sim,Woojang 1

1국민대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

We reflect on the excessive emphasis on the spirit of resistance in the study of the legend of Mighty Baby. This is because this trend has reduced the extended understanding of the legend of Mighty Baby. We think this is why research on the current significance of the legend of Mighty Baby was insufficient compared to myths with similar characteristics. Therefore, this study compares The Witch and Mighty Baby and tries to find a new meaning of Mighty Baby in a wider range. This is because the movie The Witch uses the schema of Mighty Baby but shows a completely different appearance. The character structure of The Witch is consistent with that of Mighty Baby. In both works, there is a triangular structure of a baby with outstanding abilities, a mother who is afraid of the baby's splendor, and a powerful man who tries to kill the baby. In addition, the two works are similar in detail. Unusual things happen before and after birth, and through this, the child's excellent abilities are confirmed. There is a process of moving away from death, and growing into a new person in a special space. The Witch shows the opposite view for Mighty Baby. By setting general character to be a woman rather than a man and making the femininity hardly visible, it overthrows the anti-femininity of Mighty Baby. The mother character, which has an ambivalent personality, was also divided into two, eliminating the contradictions of the mother character and being free from the burden of murdering the baby by the mother. In addition, Ja-yoon Koo, the protagonist of The Witch, acts proactively and subjectively differently from the mighty baby. Ja-yoon Koo makes the biggest reversal by showing a strategy to lure Dr. Baek according to her own needs. In this way, The Witch summoned the Mighty Baby schema because of the expectation and fear of another form of excellence faced by our times. The Witch mainly deals with genetic manipulation, but robot technology and artificial intelligence technology also raise expectations and fears for excellence. In the face of the so-called posthuman era, The Witch attempts to resolve the contradiction between expectations and fears of excellence through the logic of coexistence rather than exclusion or praise. In this sense, it is highly likely that the schema of Mighty Baby will continue to be summoned to create new stories about excellence.

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