균질적/비균질적 시선의 패러독스와 젠더 ― 『산시로(三四郞)』에 내재된 젠더의 맥락화와 비평의 가능성 ―

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the image of women portrayed by male writer during the Meiji era, by analyzing ‘Sansiro’ by Natsume Souseki. First, as there was a desire to be on par with the western world, when discussing the modern times and modernization of Japan, the “subjectivity” of women was emphasized with culture, in particular skin color, makeup, and eyes, just as how men and women were presented as “the subjects” in the West. However, the “female culture” ended up becoming generic, created based on the “homogeneous” male perspective. That is, rather than accepting the cultural diversity, female culture was described to be homogeneous, or standardized. On the contrary, when discussing male󰠏female relationships, it was possible to identify male “inhomogeneous” perspectives that only acknowledge the subjectivity of men, as men were perceived to be the subject, whereas women were perceived to be “the others.” It was identified that the social habitus of the times, as the notions related to sex, relationship, marriage, and divorce were based on the idea that women were in “vassalage” to men. Second, the images of women portrayed by men could be divided into two types. Although the author described Mineko as an independent woman who leads men and has “economic power” despite the fact that women were considered incapable at the time, she ended up marrying a bourgeois man to become a “selfish and practical woman.” On the other hand, the “ideal woman” was described to be an “innocent woman with a strong maternal image,” someone who has strong feminine traits like Yosiko. The author introduced many different women as if he was describing the “rupture of the single female image,” but ultimately, the limitation of the work was that women were classified into two types, and that only women whom “men can handle” were accepted. At the same time, it showed “the possibilities of gender󰠏free” in Mineko. However, there is a limitation in that although Mineko attempted to secure subjectivity by escaping from the existing gender norms, she eventually compromised with reality when faced with such gender norms, and internalized them in the end.