『비너스와 아도니스』(Venus and Adonis)의 언어 속에 담긴 이항대립 체계의 개방성 (An Openness of the Binary Oppositional Linguistic System in Venus and Adonis)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국셰익스피어학회
· 수록지 정보 : Shakespeare Review / 52권 / 2호 / 169 ~ 190페이지
· 저자명 : 김민정

초록

According to Derrida, language is inherently unstable and to some extent meaningless because its system operates on différance and binary oppositions. What enables words to refer to whatever they refer to is their difference from words, not a direct link to their referents. And their meanings from the difference are always deferred by whatever follows. Against this, texts introduce sets of oppositions that function to structure and stabilize them. Once difference-the relationship between two terms in oppositional set- has given rise to meaning, we privilege one pole of the oppositional axis and condemn the other to stop the infinite flow of meaning based on différance. This hierarchical language structure emphasizes its closed system again-meanings in it are just products of hierarchical relations which always exist within binary oppositions.
However, Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis raises a question about the closedness of binary oppositional linguistic system and rather shows its openness through Adonis of androgyny type. The unprivileged female quality in male-female oppositional set is not located to create the concept of the privileged male subject anymore in Venus and Adonis. Masculinity and feminity which have been regarded as oppositional coexist side by side in androgynous male Adonis. This helps decentre the male-centered oppositional system and leads not to the closedness of meanings which has supported the hierarchical linguistic system, but to the openness of meanings which spares us some places to deconstruct that system. It indicates that the binary oppositional linguistic system has not only the closedness of meanings but the openness to deconstruct the hierarchical oppositions in it and now we don’t have to stay where every meaning is negated and deferred because of the said openness which shows a way to an abundance of meanings that blurs the conventional distinctions in linguistic binary oppositions.

영어초록

According to Derrida, language is inherently unstable and to some extent meaningless because its system operates on différance and binary oppositions. What enables words to refer to whatever they refer to is their difference from words, not a direct link to their referents. And their meanings from the difference are always deferred by whatever follows. Against this, texts introduce sets of oppositions that function to structure and stabilize them. Once difference-the relationship between two terms in oppositional set- has given rise to meaning, we privilege one pole of the oppositional axis and condemn the other to stop the infinite flow of meaning based on différance. This hierarchical language structure emphasizes its closed system again-meanings in it are just products of hierarchical relations which always exist within binary oppositions.
However, Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis raises a question about the closedness of binary oppositional linguistic system and rather shows its openness through Adonis of androgyny type. The unprivileged female quality in male-female oppositional set is not located to create the concept of the privileged male subject anymore in Venus and Adonis. Masculinity and feminity which have been regarded as oppositional coexist side by side in androgynous male Adonis. This helps decentre the male-centered oppositional system and leads not to the closedness of meanings which has supported the hierarchical linguistic system, but to the openness of meanings which spares us some places to deconstruct that system. It indicates that the binary oppositional linguistic system has not only the closedness of meanings but the openness to deconstruct the hierarchical oppositions in it and now we don’t have to stay where every meaning is negated and deferred because of the said openness which shows a way to an abundance of meanings that blurs the conventional distinctions in linguistic binary oppositions.

참고자료

· 없음