마녀의 시각적 표현 양상에 대한 인식 변화의 고찰 -지브리와 디즈니 애니메이션 마녀 캐릭터들을 중심으로-

초록

Examining the various visual representations of witches and their intended messages illustrates how the understanding and interpretation of witches has changed over the course of centuries.The classic concept of the witch as evil and bringer of disaster and disease arises in conjunction with the Reformation. Here the figure of the witch acts as scapegoat for societies misfortune. So called witchcraft – magic spells, curses and incantations are not only a means to explain disaster and misfortune in society but are used to directly project these unto witches themselves, to put them into a role as so called “harbingers of evil”, as bringers of catastrophe. The accusation and incrimination of underprivileged and disadvantaged women as witches was more often a move motivated by politics. This treatment further reinforced the negative image of the witch and was passed on through the ages till modern times without any critical evaluation. Because of this, witches are not seen as transcendental beings of power and magic but are still viewed almost universally as evil and the negative views of the past still prevail. However, almost ironically, witches are portrayed in almost every imaginable medium today and their imagery is consumed as a product of pop culture on a wide scale, be it TV-shows, movies, animation, video games and so on. The image of the witch is even found as a graphic element in advertising and corporate design.In this paper, the research about the symbolizing process of witches in terms of history and religion was conducted. In addition, the meaning of the witch and its transition process at present was identified.Furthermore, we classified and analyzed witch characters in popular animations by their internal and external characteristics. Based on this, the change of recognition was figured out from the extraction of the witches’ characteristics on the story and the adjective meaning of colors(I.R.I color image scale) exposed as external aspects.This paper aims to describe and analyse how the imagery and visual portrayal of witches changed from negative in the past to almost always portrayed in a positive light in popular culture. This change in perception and visual representation can be viewed through the lens of gender and intersectionality. Thus, further focus is put on the role of the women themselves, who, while being stigmatized as witches were eventually able to reject and overthrow these distorted cultural norms and conceptions that aimed to repress mainly the underprivileged and disadvantaged.In the last part of this paper, the future role and portrayal of witches are discussed with focus on the renewed interest in feminism and women’s rights in the Me Too era.

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