고딕소설로서의 『캐럽 윌리엄즈』: 양가성과 이데올로기적 혼란의 공포 (Caleb Williams as a Gothic Novel: Its Ambivalence and Horror of Ideological Confusion)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국근대영미소설학회
· 수록지 정보 : 근대영미소설 / 15권 / 2호 / 105 ~ 126페이지
· 저자명 : 김일영

초록

Caleb Williams is generally interpreted either as a political novel which embodies the main ideas of Godwin’s political writing, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice or as a psychological novel which focuses on the fear and terror of Caleb, a fugitive under constant surveillance of Falkland who exerts his power in order to keep Caleb under his control. These two approaches to the novel, which derive their own justification from two prefaces and two titles of the novel, “Things as They are” and “Caleb Williams”, do not conflict with each other because the fear and terror Caleb undergoes is due to the threat and menace given by the society itself which is governed by social upper dogs, thus revealing the social injustice denounced by Godwin in Enquiry Concerning Political Justice. In short, the psychological aspects of Caleb are effective and instrumental in disclosing the cruelties of the arbitrary social system whose abolition Godwin advocated in his political writing.
The critics who try to read Godwin's political messages into this novel are faced with critical dilemma since the ending of the novel where Caleb, a Godwinian mouthpiece, blames himself, in stead of accusing Falkland of his past crime, seems contradictory to the political messages suggested in Enquiry. Such seemingly self-contradictory ending, however, is the very proof that this novel should not be regarded not just as the embodiment of Godwin's political ideas, but as a gothic novel in the transitional period which is characterized by its uncertain and ambivalent stance toward then dominant ideology. In short, the horror represented by this novel is not that of Caleb who is entrapped in a huge prison of society, but that of skeptical Caleb whose uncertainty and ideological confusion leads him to doubt who is a real victim and who is to blame.

영어초록

Caleb Williams is generally interpreted either as a political novel which embodies the main ideas of Godwin’s political writing, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice or as a psychological novel which focuses on the fear and terror of Caleb, a fugitive under constant surveillance of Falkland who exerts his power in order to keep Caleb under his control. These two approaches to the novel, which derive their own justification from two prefaces and two titles of the novel, “Things as They are” and “Caleb Williams”, do not conflict with each other because the fear and terror Caleb undergoes is due to the threat and menace given by the society itself which is governed by social upper dogs, thus revealing the social injustice denounced by Godwin in Enquiry Concerning Political Justice. In short, the psychological aspects of Caleb are effective and instrumental in disclosing the cruelties of the arbitrary social system whose abolition Godwin advocated in his political writing.
The critics who try to read Godwin's political messages into this novel are faced with critical dilemma since the ending of the novel where Caleb, a Godwinian mouthpiece, blames himself, in stead of accusing Falkland of his past crime, seems contradictory to the political messages suggested in Enquiry. Such seemingly self-contradictory ending, however, is the very proof that this novel should not be regarded not just as the embodiment of Godwin's political ideas, but as a gothic novel in the transitional period which is characterized by its uncertain and ambivalent stance toward then dominant ideology. In short, the horror represented by this novel is not that of Caleb who is entrapped in a huge prison of society, but that of skeptical Caleb whose uncertainty and ideological confusion leads him to doubt who is a real victim and who is to blame.

참고자료

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