우울과 고통: 진 리스의 『자정에게 아침인사를』에 나타난 도시 산책과 가면 쓰기 (Depression and Distress: Flânerie and Masking in Jean Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국근대영미소설학회
· 수록지 정보 : 근대영미소설 / 30권 / 1호 / 55 ~ 77페이지
· 저자명 : 정지원

초록

This study examines the barren life of Sasha Jansen, a middle-aged, single woman, in early 20th-century Paris in Jean Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight. Her distress comes from the oppression of women who fail to be a flâneur, idly strolling the city streets. Sasha is a rather passive, reluctant urbanite who is compliant with the status quo, neither a protagonist who struggles against the order nor a heroine who happily conforms to traditional conventions. Unlike the major discourses on the female consumer subject, which emphasizes women’s shopping as exhilarating and liberating, Good Morning, Midnight features a heroine who has great difficulty shopping. Although shopping has been taken for granted as entertaining in consumerist studies apart from whether it empowers consumers, for Sasha, an unwilling consumer, it is demanding work, not a leisurely activity. Sasha goes shopping to dress herself in a way that people approve of, not in a way that pleases her. Shopping, in short, is a form of cultural activity used to imitate others so that she can blend into the crowd. By carefully reading Sasha’s experience on the street, in the cafe, at the bar, and at the hotel, this paper investigates a new type of consumerist who has been neglected in consumerist studies in the early 20th century and places her anxiety, depression, and even suicidal urges in a social context.

영어초록

This study examines the barren life of Sasha Jansen, a middle-aged, single woman, in early 20th-century Paris in Jean Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight. Her distress comes from the oppression of women who fail to be a flâneur, idly strolling the city streets. Sasha is a rather passive, reluctant urbanite who is compliant with the status quo, neither a protagonist who struggles against the order nor a heroine who happily conforms to traditional conventions. Unlike the major discourses on the female consumer subject, which emphasizes women’s shopping as exhilarating and liberating, Good Morning, Midnight features a heroine who has great difficulty shopping. Although shopping has been taken for granted as entertaining in consumerist studies apart from whether it empowers consumers, for Sasha, an unwilling consumer, it is demanding work, not a leisurely activity. Sasha goes shopping to dress herself in a way that people approve of, not in a way that pleases her. Shopping, in short, is a form of cultural activity used to imitate others so that she can blend into the crowd. By carefully reading Sasha’s experience on the street, in the cafe, at the bar, and at the hotel, this paper investigates a new type of consumerist who has been neglected in consumerist studies in the early 20th century and places her anxiety, depression, and even suicidal urges in a social context.

참고자료

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