칙릿: 여성 대중서사의 한계를 넘어서

Abstract

Chick-lit, which is a compound word from the words “chick” (slang for young woman) and “literature,” has become the dominant contemporary female popular narrative. The genre focuses on the lives of modern women who live in metropolitan cities like New York and London. Even though chick-lit has become mainstream in women’s popular culture since the late 20th century, it faces two major criticisms regarding the romance plot and excessive consumerism in its novels. This paper seeks possible ways to overcome these criticisms. First, this paper reconsiders the status of women’s literature as well as examines the prejudice against the romance plot in women’s popular narratives. Traditionally, women’s literature has not been highly regarded or represented in major literary criticism, and women’s popular cultural productions, such as soap operas, romance novels and romantic comedy films, are often disdained as inferior. However, feminism movements as well as several female-audience researches have tried to overcome such disdain for women’s literature and culture. Nevertheless, chick-lit has also been attacked by some feminist circles because of the romance plot element. Against such attacks, we should remember that chick-lit has originated from the post-feminism movement, which emphasizes an awareness of women’s culture in order to upgrade the position of women in society. To defend chick-lit from the criticism on its excess reflection of consumerism, the peculiar culture and values of postmodern society should be reviewed. Postmodernism is distinguished by an emphasis on symbols and images that replace “reality.” Women’s deep attachment to consumerism in chick-lit largely reflects the reality that modern women face. However, the female characters in chick-lit rather have firm grasps of the facts that capitalism and patriarchy are closely related to female oppression. Therefore, they have abilities not to be indiscreetly carried along by consumerism. To sum up, chick-lit exhibits the potential to generate oppositional values in a society that is still under the influence of patriarchy. However, to fully function as the representative contemporary female popular narrative, chick-lit should demonstrate shrewd criticisms on current women’s problems and feature alternative ways to solve them.