『연애하는 여자들』의 원시주의 서사와 정동
Narrative Primitivism and Affects in Women in Love
2
조회
0
다운로드
0
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
This essay suggests that the affective dimension of primitivism has a crucial part in D. H. Lawrence’s innovative characterization in Women in Love. Building on Michael Bell’s and Ben Etherington’s astute commentaries on Lawrentian primitivism, while drawing on Brian Massumi’s notion of affect, it foregrounds Gudrun and Birkin as major focalizers of the primitive narrative. First, in her relationship with Gerald, Gudrun turns him into a primitive object of her sadomasochistic desire. It is Lawrence’s narrative primitivism that makes this psychosexual mechanism feasible, generating precognitive and inexpressible affects, which nevertheless are embodied in the narrative as intensities arresting the characters. As Gerald becomes “primitive” through the logic of Gudrun’s desire, it is potently revealed that he is deeply subordinated to the ‘savagery’ of modern capitalist system, along with the machinery and the coal-miners. In case of Birkin, his primitivist aspiration brings forth alternative modes of sensual experience beyond the pale of heterosexual normativity. Right after the climactic moment of his conflicted relationship with Hermione, he undergoes blissful feelings of fulfillment in an erotic, yet asexual encounter with nature. Further, the wrestling scene with Gerald presents similarly intense and deeply gratifying feelings accompanying genuinely uninhibited sensuality. Yet, the ideological binary of primitivism as a discourse—into degenerative and regenerative ones—affects Birkin to repress his queer desire, and hold onto the safe ground of heterosexuality. Nonetheless, it deserves our attention that rather than an artistic credo or a part of imperial discourse, primitivism as a driving force of narrative enables Lawrence to embody affective realities of his characters, thus generating a unique aesthetics of the novel.
Abstract
This essay suggests that the affective dimension of primitivism has a crucial part in D. H. Lawrence’s innovative characterization in Women in Love. Building on Michael Bell’s and Ben Etherington’s astute commentaries on Lawrentian primitivism, while drawing on Brian Massumi’s notion of affect, it foregrounds Gudrun and Birkin as major focalizers of the primitive narrative. First, in her relationship with Gerald, Gudrun turns him into a primitive object of her sadomasochistic desire. It is Lawrence’s narrative primitivism that makes this psychosexual mechanism feasible, generating precognitive and inexpressible affects, which nevertheless are embodied in the narrative as intensities arresting the characters. As Gerald becomes “primitive” through the logic of Gudrun’s desire, it is potently revealed that he is deeply subordinated to the ‘savagery’ of modern capitalist system, along with the machinery and the coal-miners. In case of Birkin, his primitivist aspiration brings forth alternative modes of sensual experience beyond the pale of heterosexual normativity. Right after the climactic moment of his conflicted relationship with Hermione, he undergoes blissful feelings of fulfillment in an erotic, yet asexual encounter with nature. Further, the wrestling scene with Gerald presents similarly intense and deeply gratifying feelings accompanying genuinely uninhibited sensuality. Yet, the ideological binary of primitivism as a discourse—into degenerative and regenerative ones—affects Birkin to repress his queer desire, and hold onto the safe ground of heterosexuality. Nonetheless, it deserves our attention that rather than an artistic credo or a part of imperial discourse, primitivism as a driving force of narrative enables Lawrence to embody affective realities of his characters, thus generating a unique aesthetics of the novel.
참고문헌 (33)
- 강병희, "“나를 사랑하나요?”: 정동이론으로 바라본 D. H. 로렌스의 「말장수 딸」", D.H. 로렌스 연구, 27(1), pp.1~24 (2019), 한국로렌스학회[DOI]
- 강미숙, "『연애하는 여인들』에 나타난 자기애적 주체", D.H. 로렌스 연구, 17(1), pp.1~24 (2009), 한국로렌스학회[DOI]
- 김성호, "거드런 브랭귄—『연애하는 여인들』과 현대적 감각으로의 모험", 영미문학연구, (19), pp.5~32 (2010), 영미문학연구회
- 김성호, "로렌스와 스피노자: 접점들과 분기점들", D.H. 로렌스 연구, 27(2), pp.57~74 (2019), 한국로렌스학회[DOI]
- 백낙청, "서양의 개벽사상가 D. H. 로렌스" (2020), 창비
- Asher, Kenneth, "Literature, Ethics, and the Emotions" (2017), Cambridge UP
- Bell, Michael, "Primitivism" (1972), Methuen
- Bell, Michael, "D. H. Lawrence: Language and Being" (1992), Cambridge UP
- Bell, Michael, "The Cambridge Companion to D. H. Lawrence", pp.179~196 (2001), Cambridge UP
- Barkan, Elaza, "Prehistories of the Future: The Primitivist Project and the Culture of Modernism", pp.1~22 (1995), Stanford UP
- Booth, Howard J, "Modernism and Empire: Writing and British Coloniality 1890-1940", pp.197~224 (2000), Manchester UP
- Margrét Gunnarsdóttir Champion, "“Flesh of my Flesh”: City Affect and Spirit of Place in D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love", D.H. 로렌스 연구, 26(2), pp.91~117 (2018), 한국로렌스학회[DOI]
- Etherington, Ben, "Literary Primitivism" (2018), Stanford UP
- Dunn, Stephane, "Like a Black and White Kaleidoscope Tossed at Random", pp.59~71 (2001), Publication de l’université de Rouen
- Farmer, David, "Women in Love", pp.xxi~lxi (1987), Cambridge UP
- Gasiorek, Andrzej, "Modernism and Colonialism: British and Irish Literature, 1899-1939", pp.91~110 (2007), Duke UP
- Gikandi, Simon, "Writing and Race", pp.147~165 (1997), Routledge
- Hough, Graham, "The Dark Sun: A Study of D. H. Lawrence" (1957), MacMillan
- Kessler, Jascha, "D. H. Lawrence’s Primitivism", Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 5, pp.467~488 (1964)
- 김성호, "Capitalism and Affective Economies in Lawrence’s Women in Love", 영미문학연구, (31), pp.123~147 (2016), 영미문학연구회
- Lawrence, D. H, "Women in Love" (1987), Cambridge UP
- Lawrence, D. H, "Study of Thomas Hardy and Other Essays", pp.201~205 (1985), Cambridge UP
- Lawrence, D. H, "The Letters of D. H. Lawrence. Vol II" (1982), Cambridge UP
- Lawrence, D. H, "Phoenix II: Uncollected Writing", pp.565~570 (1970), Viking
- Massumi, Brian, "Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation", pp.23~45 (2002), Duke UP
- Massumi, Brian, "The Affect Theory Reader", pp.52~70 (2010), Duke UP
- Neilson, Brett, "Twentieth Century Literature", Twentieth Century Literature, 43(4), pp.310~325 (1997)
- "An Introduction to Women in Love" (2016)[URL]
- Stewart, Jack, "Primitivism in Women in Love", D. H. Lawrence Review, 13(1), pp.45~62 (1980)
- Sweeney, Carole, "From Fetish to Subject: Race, Modernism, and Primitivism, 1919-1935"
- Tindall, W. Y, "D. H. Lawrence and the Primitive", The Sewanee Review, 45(2), pp.198~211 (1937)
- Torgovnick, Marianna, "Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives" (1990), U of Chicago P
- Widmer, Kingsley, "The Primitivistic Aesthetic: D. H. Lawrence", The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 17(3), pp.344~353 (1959)