Power and Complicity: A Reading of the Anxiety of Influence in Yi Mun yol's Our Twisted Hero

This paper interprets the "anxiety of influence" in Yi Mun yol's Our Twisted Hero. It argues that the novel struggles with the shadow of its Western literary predecessors, namely, George Orwell's Animal Farm, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Although many readers read the novel as a political allegory of Korea's transition from dictatorship to democracy, this reading exemplifies this appropriation of the Western dystopian tradition by Yi, who transforms it into a story about power, conformity, and the complicity of the individual that is distinctly Korean. The novel uses the setting of an elementary school classroom to explore the ways in which totalitarianism crushes intellectual elementary school classroom to explore the ways in which totalitarianism crushes intellectual opposition, through intimidation or assimilation. The study shows that Yi does not simply opposition, through intimidation or assimilation. The study shows that Yi does not simply copy his Wecopy his Western predecessors, but struggles with their influence to produce a work that stern predecessors, but struggles with their influence to produce a work that responds to Korea's particular historical experience of authoritarian rule.responds to Korea's particular historical experience of authoritarian rule.