샤일록과 예화: 베니스의 상인에 나타나는 자본의 윤리 서사 전략
Shylock and Exemplum: Ethical Narrative Strategy of Capitalism in The Merchant of Venice
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Countless papers devoted to one of the most controversial characters, Shylock, have generated the incompatible two interpretations: merciless Jewish usurer or scapegoat of Christian merchants. Recent criticisms siding with the latter Shylock decry Christian practice of burgeoning capitalist economy not less morally questionable than that of Jewish usury, and in turn argue that Shylock is not a villain but a scapegoat of Christian capitalist mercantilism who must be cleared away before the new era of capitalism. This paper goes one step further from this position to claim that Shakespeare characterized Shylock modeled on medieval exempla which were inserted in sermons to illustrate moral lessons. It is with his language of literalism on the one hand and with his characterization from the typical medieval Jews (a stock character in medieval sermons and absent from England since 1290) on the other hand that Shakespeare created Shylock as a subject of a sermon exemplum. For the early modern capitalist economy then coming of age which was in desperate need of a narrative to reconcile itself with ethical imperative from Christian abhorrence against selfish accumulation of capital, the conversion or death of Shylock, a symbol of “bad old money,” in the Merchant of Venice guaranteed a narrative excuse of its being new entrepreneurship of moral standing as Max Weber’s Christian ethic a few centuries later did for the spirit of capitalism. Howard Jacobson’s My Name is Shylock recreated a new Shylock from the puppet-like Shylock, but his Shylock is still uncomfortable under 21st century capitalist economy probably because of its same underlying nature as that in Venice ceaselessly face lifting itself as CEOs of “liberal communist” persuasion in Davos forum are doing even at this moment.
Abstract
Countless papers devoted to one of the most controversial characters, Shylock, have generated the incompatible two interpretations: merciless Jewish usurer or scapegoat of Christian merchants. Recent criticisms siding with the latter Shylock decry Christian practice of burgeoning capitalist economy not less morally questionable than that of Jewish usury, and in turn argue that Shylock is not a villain but a scapegoat of Christian capitalist mercantilism who must be cleared away before the new era of capitalism. This paper goes one step further from this position to claim that Shakespeare characterized Shylock modeled on medieval exempla which were inserted in sermons to illustrate moral lessons. It is with his language of literalism on the one hand and with his characterization from the typical medieval Jews (a stock character in medieval sermons and absent from England since 1290) on the other hand that Shakespeare created Shylock as a subject of a sermon exemplum. For the early modern capitalist economy then coming of age which was in desperate need of a narrative to reconcile itself with ethical imperative from Christian abhorrence against selfish accumulation of capital, the conversion or death of Shylock, a symbol of “bad old money,” in the Merchant of Venice guaranteed a narrative excuse of its being new entrepreneurship of moral standing as Max Weber’s Christian ethic a few centuries later did for the spirit of capitalism. Howard Jacobson’s My Name is Shylock recreated a new Shylock from the puppet-like Shylock, but his Shylock is still uncomfortable under 21st century capitalist economy probably because of its same underlying nature as that in Venice ceaselessly face lifting itself as CEOs of “liberal communist” persuasion in Davos forum are doing even at this moment.
참고문헌 (29)
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