미국 신여성(플래퍼)의재현 양상과 소비자본주의

Abstract

This paper is to study American new woman(flapper) as a preliminary study to examine how Korean new woman accepted American new women's way of life. At the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century there appeared new woman all over the country like a globalized phenomenon. As new woman appeared in most of the countries at the stage of modernization and consumerism it seemed as if there is some relationship among modernization, new woman and consumerism. In America new woman known as flapper was presumed to appear before the First World War. Their appearance seemed to spread to many women between after the First World War and 1920s, and the climax of its proliferation seemed to be in the middle of 1920s. Right after they appeared they were criticized bitterly by conservatives and many ordinary people. Nevertheless, their appearance spreaded to many women widely. This phenomenon interested many scholars including their contemporaries, with the result of the affirmative and negative evalution. The reason for the negative evaluation was that flappers did not contribute to the improvement of women's political right and for the affirmative evaluation hey brought about a change in the women's sphere and they protested against the morals enforced by men. However, it is more important to examine flappers in a synthetic approach instead of evaluating flappers in a limit to the contribution of public sphere. At that time it was economically prosperous and consumerism was blooming it is necessary to examine their change of role and their role as an active consumer in the grand frame of consumerism and capitalism. In other words it is necessary to focus on flappers as a symbol of modernity free from tradition and a popular role model as an active participant in a society of consumerism. In the first chapter, I examined flappers' appearance and their way of life and behaviors and the degree of their spread. In the second chapter, I focused on 1920s' economic situation and the influence of development of consumerism to women, economic activity of married or unmarried middle class women and discourse of sex. In the third chapter, I examined a correlation of flappers and consumerism focusing on flappers' clothes, cosmetics and short hair. As a result I concluded that consumerism contributed spreading and popularizing flappers' fashion but it could not be possible unless women were ready to accept flappers' fashion and flappers' way of life. In other words, as flappers' fashion conformed women's desire it could be spreaded widely. Therefore, I could safely say that flappers were not only the symbol of modernity but also the launchers of modernity.