문학과 경영학: 마크 트웨인의『아더 왕궁의 커넷티컷 양키』에 나타난 동기 전쟁

Literature and Management: The Motivation War in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

This paper analyzes characteristics of the protagonist of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and those of the people and the society of Arthur’s kingdom in the sixth century in which he was thrown by a mysterious force. In order to figure out the characteristics, it applies a theory from Organizational Behavior, a branch of the discipline of Management. David C. McClelland’s “achievement motivation theory,” which categorizes human motivations into need for Achievement (n Ach), need for Power (n Pow), and need for Affiliation (n Aff), provides a useful tool to understand human characteristics in terms of motivation. The theory shows that Hank, the protagonist and the man from the nineteenth century America, has high n Ach whereas the society of Arthur’s Kingdom has very low n Ach while the Church and the aristocrats have high n Pow. The paper argues that what Hank is essentially doing is converting the low n Ach society into high n Ach one. In the course of the conversion (or revolution), he conflicts with the Church and the aristocrats that are manipulative and want to keep the society low n Ach. From this perspective, his revolution is, in essence, the motivation war—war between two different motivations. To win the war against two formidable forces, Hank creates his own force, the enlightened people whom he trains and educates with his advanced knowledge and technology. However, it turns out that his people fail to resist the Church’s interdict, and Hank’s enterprise eventually fails. This paper attempts to find the cause of the failure using McClelland’s theory. In addition, it also shows that Hank himself changes in the latter part of the fiction. His change of the characteristics provides a possible explanation why he falls into the spell of Merlin’s magic which has no effect on him before his change.