Bernard Shaw의 Back to Methuselah에 나타난 ‘Longevity'와 ‘Utopianism': ‘우생학적 담론’을 중심으로
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This essay argues that a general contemporary view concerning the development in thinking on evolution and eugenics seems to be reflected in Shaw's attitude and plays especially in Back to Methuselah. The Galtonian eugenics movement drew much of its appeal from the claim that the reproduction of higher race of men would solve the problem of humanity. Eugenicists welcomed the process of rational selection in order to attain desired social goals for betterment of humanity,According to Shaw, true progress can only be achieved through the conscious effort of the human will toward improving itself through biological advancement. Along with the contemporary evolutionary thought concerning eugenic ideas, Shaw seems to have a conscious and deliberate attempt to produce an evolutionary successor through the eugenic breeding of superman to human species in his plays. Back to Methuselah attempts to present what will happen when men and women will to live longer and strive to reach the vortex of pure thought through eugenic evolution. In the play, shaw's longevity seems to be a reaction to his sense of approaching age and death and his response to the murderous World War I and the limitation of man's ability. In Back to Methuselah, Shaw presents longevity as a solution, which can be accomplished through the conviction of its absolute necessity. In the relation to idea of longevity, Shaw's view about the concept of superman changed in Back to Methuselah. It seems because his growing pessimism in the wake of the First World War and his despairing doubts about man's future and uncertainty about man's capacity to survive seems to make Shaw more emphatic. For this reason, as the most significant element, Shaw adds the gospel of longevity to his evolutionary concept of superman in the Back to Methuselah. For Shaw, longevity might redeem life from the narrow confinement of time and make it more meaningful and worth living. Accordingly, the first goal of the life force is to breed man into a better species, and then finally into a god-like being of superman towards the human-god in terms of the betterment of human society.
Abstract
This essay argues that a general contemporary view concerning the development in thinking on evolution and eugenics seems to be reflected in Shaw's attitude and plays especially in Back to Methuselah. The Galtonian eugenics movement drew much of its appeal from the claim that the reproduction of higher race of men would solve the problem of humanity. Eugenicists welcomed the process of rational selection in order to attain desired social goals for betterment of humanity,According to Shaw, true progress can only be achieved through the conscious effort of the human will toward improving itself through biological advancement. Along with the contemporary evolutionary thought concerning eugenic ideas, Shaw seems to have a conscious and deliberate attempt to produce an evolutionary successor through the eugenic breeding of superman to human species in his plays. Back to Methuselah attempts to present what will happen when men and women will to live longer and strive to reach the vortex of pure thought through eugenic evolution. In the play, shaw's longevity seems to be a reaction to his sense of approaching age and death and his response to the murderous World War I and the limitation of man's ability. In Back to Methuselah, Shaw presents longevity as a solution, which can be accomplished through the conviction of its absolute necessity. In the relation to idea of longevity, Shaw's view about the concept of superman changed in Back to Methuselah. It seems because his growing pessimism in the wake of the First World War and his despairing doubts about man's future and uncertainty about man's capacity to survive seems to make Shaw more emphatic. For this reason, as the most significant element, Shaw adds the gospel of longevity to his evolutionary concept of superman in the Back to Methuselah. For Shaw, longevity might redeem life from the narrow confinement of time and make it more meaningful and worth living. Accordingly, the first goal of the life force is to breed man into a better species, and then finally into a god-like being of superman towards the human-god in terms of the betterment of human society.
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