루쉰과 뭉크의 예술에 있어 불안과 죽음

초록

This paper aims to conduct a comparative study of the artistic worlds of Lu Xun and Edvard Munch through the themes of “death” and “anxiety.” While previous studies on Lu Xun have primarily focused on nationalism, enlightenment, and social criticism, this study seeks to illuminate the tragic consciousness and existential anxiety embedded in Lu Xun’s literature from a personal and psychological perspective. In particular, by centering on Munch’s “The Scream” and Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman,” this paper examines how anxiety, madness, and the violence of the crowd are represented in the context of modern society. To this end, the paper first pays attention to the repeated experiences of death and illness within the families of both artists during their childhoods. Munch developed an obsessive fear of death and disease after witnessing the deaths of his mother and sister, and this trauma was repeatedly reproduced in works such as The Sick Child. Likewise, Lu Xun experienced his father’s illness and death at an early age, and the memories of visiting pawnshops and pharmacies were transformed into literary motifs in works such as “Father’s Illness,” “Medicine,” “Tomorrow,” and “In the Tavern.” This study argues that such repeated representations are not mere recollections, but artisticreconstructions in which personal memory is combined with creative imagination. Furthermore, this paper compares the images of the crowd in Munch’s “Evening on Karl Johan Street”, “Anxiety”, and “The Scream” with the villagers depicted in Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman.” Through this comparison, it analyzes how the crowd generates psychological oppression and fear within modern society. While Munch’s crowd represents anonymity and alienation in the modern city, Lu Xun’s crowd functions as a collective force that embodies feudal convention and communal violence. Nevertheless, both artists share a common interest in portraying the intensification of anxiety and madness under the oppressive gaze of the crowd. Finally, the paper argues that Munch’s anxiety reflects a crisis of Western modern civilization and rationalism, whereas Lu Xun’s “Cry” constitutes a critique of the oppression and backwardness of Chinese feudal society, which had yet to fully enter modernity. Through this comparison, the study concludes that the essence of Lu Xun’s literature lies not only in enlightenment-oriented social criticism, but also in its tragic awareness of individual solitude, death, and modern anxiety.

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