The Jungle Booksにおける越境する不安定な"Master" Mowgli
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概要
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The two novels by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle Book (1895), consist of seven animal stories and eight chapters about Mowgli's life. In the story, Mowgli grows from his infancy beginning at his thrusting himself into the Jungle to his youth concluding his leaving the Jungle to the human world. Having a double identity as a wolf and a human being, he comes up against self-contradiction. He must choose only one side to be free from disturbance; however, both sides never admit him into the same kind as them. It is possible to explain the story as an allegory of imperialism; while Mowgli learns the art of the colonial ruler, the animals represent the natives, the subject people. His imperial might, however, is nothing but the surface of the things. Mowgli is obliged to lead a lonely life and have an unstable mentality that puts him in an insecure position. Kipling's main theme is, as M.D. Kutzer indicates, "a longing and search for a home" and his "obsession with home and belonging is caused in part by his own homeless state", and furthermore his heroes are "caught between worlds", deciding to accept "two or more cultures, but at home nowhere". Mowgli has two or more titles. Above all "the Frog" and "the Master" are important because they are given by someone other than Mowgli. Mowgli is anxious for belonging to somewhere, so he fights and wins the title of the Master. However, he is never accepted by anyone or anywhere. He crosses or remains in the border between the world of law and that of no law or between the human world and the animal world. Even the title of the Frog implying the weakness does not mean the necessity of protection but the privilege of his character.
- 2006-02-28
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関連論文
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