『에마』에 나타난 언어, 권력, 공동체의 함수 (Dynamics of Speech, Power, and Community in Emma)

서지정보

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초록

This essay argues that Jane Austen’s Emma, in its fresh rendition of the idea of ‘mistress’ as governing not only domestic space but also public space of community, presents a new direction of the Austenian marriage plot. Attempting to place the novel and its heroine in the context of later phase of the Austenian female Bildungsroman where the value of community and women’s positive role in it are profoundly appreciated, the essay analyzes the complex nature of community and women’s public role Emma envisions.
The essay begins by recognizing the ways in which this highly verbally-charged novel (de)constructs functional matrix of speech battles among characters. While characters, through sharp confrontations and intense competitions of languages, interact with each other in pursuit of power, none comes out victorious in the end. The novel simply continues to reflect collaboration, complementarity, and fundamental interdependency of these competing languages. A sort of subtle equilibrium of power, the essay argues, is maintained throughout, which serves to shift the impulse of the narrative from individual achievement to the survival of community as “a well-oiled machine.”
Then, the essay moves to illuminate how the struggle for linguistic power originates in class-conflict. What makes Highbury community so peculiar is that it is tacitly class-ridden and yet the fact of hierarchy of class is not acknowledged openly; the existence of class distinction is managed or controlled by means of the social system of benevolence and ethics of caring. The equilibrium of power is thus a necessary solution to erasing or at least silencing the threat of eruption of class-conflict. The essay analyzes the Box Hill episode in detail because it contains some crucial elements revealing how the breakdown of equilibrium would unmask the unstable and vulnerable reality of community. The essay argues that the novel, in its exploration of historical conditions of sustainable community in the wake of emerging crisis of class-conflict, embraces the fundamental limitations of modern community, recognizes the reality of interdependency and further encourages the moral value of personal act of friendship.
Lastly, the essay examines how Austen coordinates the discourse of community with the narrative of heroine’s transformation. The marriage plot of the novel verifies the status of Emma, as the one and only mistress of Highbury, which the essay interprets as a significant expansion of the Austenian thematics of feminine subjectivity.

영어초록

This essay argues that Jane Austen’s Emma, in its fresh rendition of the idea of ‘mistress’ as governing not only domestic space but also public space of community, presents a new direction of the Austenian marriage plot. Attempting to place the novel and its heroine in the context of later phase of the Austenian female Bildungsroman where the value of community and women’s positive role in it are profoundly appreciated, the essay analyzes the complex nature of community and women’s public role Emma envisions.
The essay begins by recognizing the ways in which this highly verbally-charged novel (de)constructs functional matrix of speech battles among characters. While characters, through sharp confrontations and intense competitions of languages, interact with each other in pursuit of power, none comes out victorious in the end. The novel simply continues to reflect collaboration, complementarity, and fundamental interdependency of these competing languages. A sort of subtle equilibrium of power, the essay argues, is maintained throughout, which serves to shift the impulse of the narrative from individual achievement to the survival of community as “a well-oiled machine.”
Then, the essay moves to illuminate how the struggle for linguistic power originates in class-conflict. What makes Highbury community so peculiar is that it is tacitly class-ridden and yet the fact of hierarchy of class is not acknowledged openly; the existence of class distinction is managed or controlled by means of the social system of benevolence and ethics of caring. The equilibrium of power is thus a necessary solution to erasing or at least silencing the threat of eruption of class-conflict. The essay analyzes the Box Hill episode in detail because it contains some crucial elements revealing how the breakdown of equilibrium would unmask the unstable and vulnerable reality of community. The essay argues that the novel, in its exploration of historical conditions of sustainable community in the wake of emerging crisis of class-conflict, embraces the fundamental limitations of modern community, recognizes the reality of interdependency and further encourages the moral value of personal act of friendship.
Lastly, the essay examines how Austen coordinates the discourse of community with the narrative of heroine’s transformation. The marriage plot of the novel verifies the status of Emma, as the one and only mistress of Highbury, which the essay interprets as a significant expansion of the Austenian thematics of feminine subjectivity.

참고자료

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