19세기 미국소설에 재현된 여성독자: 루이자 메이 앨코트의『일』과 「메이 플라워즈」 (The Woman Reader in Nineteenth-Century American Novel: Louisa May Alcott's Work: A Story of Experience and “May Flowers”)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 19세기영어권문학회
· 수록지 정보 : 19세기 영어권 문학 / 18권 / 1호 / 123 ~ 152페이지
· 저자명 : 장정희

초록

The tropes of consumption and addiction were used as the warning against women readers in both nineteenth-century England and America. To ensure the morality of home, the culture of the middle class, and the health of the nation, reading with discrimination was strongly recommended for women readers. This paper examines the representation of woman reader in nineteenth-century American novel focusing on Louisa May Alcott's Work: A Story of Experience and “May Flowers”. Although the tropes of consumption and addiction are used to describe Christie Devon's reading habit through Work, her reading habit is associated with her development and education and opens her up to her self-education. She is transformed by her reading process which had hitherto led her astray. Christie's reading practices are revised through her careers as domestic servant, actress, governess, companion of patient, and active leader of female community. Alcott highlights the positive aspects of woman's reading, as Christie begins as a consumptive reader but improves herself as a respectable leader of her community.
Throughout “May Flowers” Alcott focuses on the social role of reading by bringing women readers into the public and important social actions. The members of Mayflower club read The Prisoners of Poverty together and their companionship leads to practice charity in their community. Reading together encourages them to transform themselves by putting abstract ideas into real activities. Alcott emphasizes that the reading club makes women readers aware of social or cultural problems that might otherwise be hidden or ignored. The women's reading club succeeds in empowering them to participate in the important cultural debate and practice and ensure the health of postbellum American society and nation. Throughout Work and “Mayflowers”, Alcott tones down the rhetoric of anxiety about woman reader by redefining the relationship between woman's reading and pursuit of woman's career in nineteenth-century American society.

영어초록

The tropes of consumption and addiction were used as the warning against women readers in both nineteenth-century England and America. To ensure the morality of home, the culture of the middle class, and the health of the nation, reading with discrimination was strongly recommended for women readers. This paper examines the representation of woman reader in nineteenth-century American novel focusing on Louisa May Alcott's Work: A Story of Experience and “May Flowers”. Although the tropes of consumption and addiction are used to describe Christie Devon's reading habit through Work, her reading habit is associated with her development and education and opens her up to her self-education. She is transformed by her reading process which had hitherto led her astray. Christie's reading practices are revised through her careers as domestic servant, actress, governess, companion of patient, and active leader of female community. Alcott highlights the positive aspects of woman's reading, as Christie begins as a consumptive reader but improves herself as a respectable leader of her community.
Throughout “May Flowers” Alcott focuses on the social role of reading by bringing women readers into the public and important social actions. The members of Mayflower club read The Prisoners of Poverty together and their companionship leads to practice charity in their community. Reading together encourages them to transform themselves by putting abstract ideas into real activities. Alcott emphasizes that the reading club makes women readers aware of social or cultural problems that might otherwise be hidden or ignored. The women's reading club succeeds in empowering them to participate in the important cultural debate and practice and ensure the health of postbellum American society and nation. Throughout Work and “Mayflowers”, Alcott tones down the rhetoric of anxiety about woman reader by redefining the relationship between woman's reading and pursuit of woman's career in nineteenth-century American society.

참고자료

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