“애틋함 그 자체”: 제인 오스틴의 『설득』에 나타난 감정의 재발견
“Tenderness Itself”: Reinventing Feelings in Jane Austen’s Persuasion
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This essay presents a feminist reading of Jane Austen’s Persuasion with a focus on the configuration and vindication of the feminine feelings. In an attempt to rethink the ways in which Persuasion intervenes the dominant discourse of rationality and the notion of the universal, this essay examines how the novel reclaims and further expands the territory of the feminine. First, this essay considers the heroine Anne Elliot to be an incarnation of feelings, an embodiment of the power of compassion, self-effacement,caring, and concern for others, whose impressible and fragile body persistently registers variegated emotions and acute sensations as well: ultimately,“Anne is tenderness itself.” Second, the essay analyzes how the heroine’s feelings become persuasive enough to change Captain Wentworth, which can be captured in the process of ‘feminization.’ Lastly, the essay endeavors to illuminate the individual experience-oriented nature of the act of persuasion itself. The novel seems to succeed in relocating persuasion within the realm of personal intimacy and feelings. Wentworth’s feminization and the subsequent union with Anne reflect the emotional bankruptcy of traditional gentry class. Persuasion’s project of reevaluation of feelings, the essay concludes, exemplifies the viable form of feminist social criticism through the appropriation of the feminine.
Abstract
This essay presents a feminist reading of Jane Austen’s Persuasion with a focus on the configuration and vindication of the feminine feelings. In an attempt to rethink the ways in which Persuasion intervenes the dominant discourse of rationality and the notion of the universal, this essay examines how the novel reclaims and further expands the territory of the feminine. First, this essay considers the heroine Anne Elliot to be an incarnation of feelings, an embodiment of the power of compassion, self-effacement,caring, and concern for others, whose impressible and fragile body persistently registers variegated emotions and acute sensations as well: ultimately,“Anne is tenderness itself.” Second, the essay analyzes how the heroine’s feelings become persuasive enough to change Captain Wentworth, which can be captured in the process of ‘feminization.’ Lastly, the essay endeavors to illuminate the individual experience-oriented nature of the act of persuasion itself. The novel seems to succeed in relocating persuasion within the realm of personal intimacy and feelings. Wentworth’s feminization and the subsequent union with Anne reflect the emotional bankruptcy of traditional gentry class. Persuasion’s project of reevaluation of feelings, the essay concludes, exemplifies the viable form of feminist social criticism through the appropriation of the feminine.
참고문헌 (21)
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