From Theocracy to Democracy: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks
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This paper examines the ways in which Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks investigates the transformation of American society from a theology-based hierarchical society toward a secular democratic society by mainly focusing on democratization in the sphere of discourse and communication. The novel marks not only the secularization and liberalization of the contents of discourses―mainly theology―available to the people of Oldtown but also the democratic ways in which discourses and information are constructed and distributed. Democratization in the realm of theology involves the criticism of the rationalistic Calvinism that prevailed in New England for overlooking the importance of the heart by being entrapped in its severe dogma of human depravity, self-denial, and asceticism. The novel argues for the revival of feeling and passion in religious life and observes that the newly emerging democratic theology is based on individual freedom, the diversification of theological discourses, and the decentralization of the clergy. Along with liberalized theology, the ordinary people of Oldtown constitute a democratic discursive network in which people can equally and freely participate in the process of producing and distributing discourses. Exemplified by Grandmother Badger’s horizontal, inclusive kitchen and the village do-nothing Sam Lawson who helps circulate information and develop discourses among people, this discursive network indicates that the free expression of oneself and the open access to information began to bud as some of the basic principles of the early formation of the United States into a democratic society. By observing that minority groups of gender and ethnicity have a limited participation in and even are excluded from the discursive network of Oldtown, the novel, however, suggests that democracy is the unfinished project that the nation constantly should seek for.
Abstract
This paper examines the ways in which Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks investigates the transformation of American society from a theology-based hierarchical society toward a secular democratic society by mainly focusing on democratization in the sphere of discourse and communication. The novel marks not only the secularization and liberalization of the contents of discourses―mainly theology―available to the people of Oldtown but also the democratic ways in which discourses and information are constructed and distributed. Democratization in the realm of theology involves the criticism of the rationalistic Calvinism that prevailed in New England for overlooking the importance of the heart by being entrapped in its severe dogma of human depravity, self-denial, and asceticism. The novel argues for the revival of feeling and passion in religious life and observes that the newly emerging democratic theology is based on individual freedom, the diversification of theological discourses, and the decentralization of the clergy. Along with liberalized theology, the ordinary people of Oldtown constitute a democratic discursive network in which people can equally and freely participate in the process of producing and distributing discourses. Exemplified by Grandmother Badger’s horizontal, inclusive kitchen and the village do-nothing Sam Lawson who helps circulate information and develop discourses among people, this discursive network indicates that the free expression of oneself and the open access to information began to bud as some of the basic principles of the early formation of the United States into a democratic society. By observing that minority groups of gender and ethnicity have a limited participation in and even are excluded from the discursive network of Oldtown, the novel, however, suggests that democracy is the unfinished project that the nation constantly should seek for.
참고문헌 (19)
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