프로레슬링의 영웅서사와 감정정치: 제노포비아적 대립 구조와 국가정체성 수행의 비교문화적 분석

• 영문명: Heroic Narratives and Emotional Politics in Professional Wrestling: A Cross-Cultural Study of Xenophobia and National Identity
• 발행기관: 문화융복합학회
• 저자명: 유경민(Kyoungmin Ryou)
• 간행물 정보: 『문화융복합』제6권 제1호, 41~53쪽, 전체 13쪽
• 주제분류: 사회과학 > 사회학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2025.06.30

국문 초록

This study investigates professional wrestling as a cultural arena where national identity and emotional politics are performed through narrative structure. By analyzing five emblematic wrestlers—Rikidozan and Antonio Inoki (Japan), Lee Wang-pyo (South Korea), Hulk Hogan and Kurt Angle (USA)—the research reveals how these figures have been constructed as national heroes and how their storylines enact xenophobic tensions and nationalistic sentiment. The study adopts Christopher Vogler’s “The Hero’s Journey” framework, originally developed for analyzing fictional narratives, to examine the real-world myth-making of these athletes. Each wrestler is interpreted through key narrative roles: hero, enemy, mentor, and audience. In particular, the role of the audience is emphasized not as passive observers, but as active participants who engage emotionally, chant national slogans, and perform the moral dichotomy embedded in each match. The presence of “evil foreigners”—represented through exaggerated accents, cultural costumes, or symbolic acts of dishonor—illustrates how professional wrestling becomes a site of symbolic conflict and emotional regulation. Findings indicate that professional wrestling operates as a stage for orchestrating collective emotion, transforming political anxieties into moral narratives. The hero overcomes not only a physical opponent but also a symbolic other, who often embodies real-world geopolitical tension. In this context, professional wrestling is not merely spectacle but a form of cultural propaganda and public pedagogy that instructs audiences on who they are, who they are not, and how to feel about both. This research expands the applicability of narrative theory to political discourse and media performance, offering a new lens through which to understand the emotional labor of nationalism. It also demonstrates the need to include audience affect and performativity in the analysis of modern popular culture.

목차

Ⅰ. 서론

Ⅱ. 연구목적 및 문제제기

Ⅲ. 사례 분석: 국가 영웅서사와 제노포비아의 수행

Ⅳ. 종합 논의: 보글러의 영웅 구조와 국가 서사 수행

Ⅴ. 결론

참고문헌

키워드

프로레슬링 영웅서사 감정정치 제노포비아 내셔널리즘 professional wrestling hero’s journey emotional politics xenophobia nationalism