한국영상문화학회

Literature, art, and popular culture have long been divided, and their mutual impact has long become an unusual accomplishment. For a while, studying how popular culture diversely relates to the creation of the so-called Great Art has fallen out of interest. It was only after the late 20th-century that the necessity for such research has started to emerge. A specific example was the study of 19th-century popular culture, more specifically, the relationship between the popular spectacle, literature and art. Their intertwining, which is an exceptional event not only for literature but also for the history of art, happened in the early 19th century and should not be treated as a petty event. On the contrary, the intertwining between the popular spectacle and the literature should be treated as a historic changing point. In this work, I discuss the rebirth of the comedic Pierrot on the stages of pantomime in early 19th century Paris. In particular, I focus on how the modern grotesque Pierrot thrilled and inpired the modern literary authors, and further evolved into becoming their portrait. Finally, I discuss how the Pierrot “on the stage” transforms into the Pierrot “on the text”, and how its emotional expressions and abilities have expanded through the literature of the century.