<論文>五感を超えて森を読む --「バタール」の姉妹作としての『野性の呼び声』再読--

Abstract

Jack London started working on The Call of the Wild as a companion story to "Bâtard." London had said that The Call of the Wild turned out to be much longer a work than he had expected to write. As such, it does not come as a surprise that critics have not regarded "Bâtard" as its companion story. However, I argue that "Bâtard" is a companion work to The Call of the Wild. The two works have several points in common. The most obvious one is that both Leclère in "Bâtard" and Buck in The Call of the Wild possess the ability to gather "information" through elements in a forest much like how we do with language. Though London did not explicitly explain the process through which Leclère acquired this ability, as well as the extent to which it works. I argue that these are in fact implied in The Call of the Wild. This paper attempts to elucidate Leclère's characteristics as well as retrace Buck's adventures from a new perspective. Through a rereading of this novel as a companion story to "Bâtard, " I claim that we can understand these two works at a more profound level.