전형적인 남성적 글쓰기로서의 『토박이』읽기
Reading Native Son as a typical male-writing novel
0
조회
0
다운로드
0
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
This thesis analyzes signs of the author’s negative attitude toward women, by examining the main characters’ identities and limitations in Richard Wright’s Native Son, one of the most famous novels of social protest, created a tidal wave of acclaim and made an indelible mark in the history of American literature. Against immense odds, Wright became America’s first best-selling black author, and his works have influenced generations of African-American writers and readers of all races. On one level, the character of Bigger Thomas can be interpreted, as he often has been, as a tragic or heroic figure who resists against white racism and achieves his self-consciousness. On another level, however, Bigger is a monster, a killer of two innocent women. He is alienated from his family, his gang, and the larger black and white community. Although Jan and Max are important to Bigger and his acquiring of identity by nourishing his social self, they do not solve his problems, nor do they have the power to change American society. As the title states, Native Son is the story of a black man, not a black woman. Bigger Thomas, economically, psychologically, and socially emasculated, unleashes his rage against female characters. Through Bigger, Richard Wright struggles to appropriate and thus dehumanize women by reducing them to pawns in the midst of male status conflict. Therefore women as characters in Native Son, are mere objects of this appropriation; they are desired as objects, but at the same time, contemptible in their weakness and passivity. Religion, alcohol, and sex are black women’s reactive activities which are characteristics of their personalities. They are all content to nag rather than nurture, and they are effectively silenced by Bigger and the author. Paradoxically, the final attempts of the text to cover the repressed phallocentricity and to achieve some sort of rapprochement between Bigger and the white male society that oppresses him are somewhat strange against this backdrop of violence against women. It is now time to uncover and examine the author’s prejudices about women and to scrutinize the previously concealed misogyny in this pivotal work of American literature, shaped by the absent Other.
Abstract
This thesis analyzes signs of the author’s negative attitude toward women, by examining the main characters’ identities and limitations in Richard Wright’s Native Son, one of the most famous novels of social protest, created a tidal wave of acclaim and made an indelible mark in the history of American literature. Against immense odds, Wright became America’s first best-selling black author, and his works have influenced generations of African-American writers and readers of all races. On one level, the character of Bigger Thomas can be interpreted, as he often has been, as a tragic or heroic figure who resists against white racism and achieves his self-consciousness. On another level, however, Bigger is a monster, a killer of two innocent women. He is alienated from his family, his gang, and the larger black and white community. Although Jan and Max are important to Bigger and his acquiring of identity by nourishing his social self, they do not solve his problems, nor do they have the power to change American society. As the title states, Native Son is the story of a black man, not a black woman. Bigger Thomas, economically, psychologically, and socially emasculated, unleashes his rage against female characters. Through Bigger, Richard Wright struggles to appropriate and thus dehumanize women by reducing them to pawns in the midst of male status conflict. Therefore women as characters in Native Son, are mere objects of this appropriation; they are desired as objects, but at the same time, contemptible in their weakness and passivity. Religion, alcohol, and sex are black women’s reactive activities which are characteristics of their personalities. They are all content to nag rather than nurture, and they are effectively silenced by Bigger and the author. Paradoxically, the final attempts of the text to cover the repressed phallocentricity and to achieve some sort of rapprochement between Bigger and the white male society that oppresses him are somewhat strange against this backdrop of violence against women. It is now time to uncover and examine the author’s prejudices about women and to scrutinize the previously concealed misogyny in this pivotal work of American literature, shaped by the absent Other.
참고문헌 (27)
- 김상률, "인종 재현의 정치: 라이트와 포크너의 담론적 대결", 현대영미소설, 8(2), pp.1~17 (2001), 한국현대영미소설학회
- Girard, René, "폭력과 성스러움" (2002), 민음사
- Tounier, Paul, "폭력과 투쟁의 심리학" (1987), 보이스사
- Baker, Houston A. Jr, "Richard Wright and the Dynamics of Place in Afro-American Literature in New Essays on Native Son", pp.85~116 (1990), Cambridge: Cambridge UP
- Bhabha, Homi K, "The Location of Culture" (1994), New York: Routledge
- Baldwin, James, "Many Thousand Gone in Native Son", pp.606~623 (2001), 신아사
- Bone, Robert A, "The Negro Novel in America" (1965), New Haven, Connecticut: Yale UP
- Bordo, Susan, "Unbearable Weight" (2003), California: The U of California
- Butler, Robert, "Native Son: The Emergence of a New Black Hero" (1991), New York: Twayne Publishers
- Erikson, Erik, "Childhood and Society" (1995), New York: W. W. Norton
- Felgar, Robert, "Student Companion to Richard Wright" (2000), Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood P
- Fabre, Michel, "The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright" (1993), Urbana, Illinois: U of Illinois P
- Hakutani, Yoshinobu, "Richard Wright and Racial Discourse" (1996), Columbia, Missouri: U of Missouri P
- Harris, Trudier, "Native Sons and Foreign Daughters in New Essays on Native Son", pp.63~84 (1990), Cambridge: Cambridge UP
- Hooks, bell, "Ain’t I a Woman: black women and feminism" (1981), Boston, MA: South End P
- Hooks, bell, "Black Looks: race and representation" (1992), Boston, MA: South End P
- Howe, Irving, "Black Boys and Native Sons in Native Son", pp.593~605 (2001), 신아사
- Irigaray, Luce, "This sex which is not one" (1985), Ithaca: Cornell UP
- Johnson, Barbara, "The Re(a)d and the Black in Richard Wright: Critical Perspectives Past and Present", pp.149~155 (1993), New York: Amistad P
- Kinnamon, Keneth, "Conversations With Richard Wright" (1993), Jackson, Mississippi: Mississippi UP
- Margolies, Edward, "Native Sons: A Critical Study of Twentieth-Century Negro American Authors" (1968), New York: J. B. Lippincott Co
- Poulos, Jennifer H, "Shouting Curses: The Politics of “Bad” Language in Richard Wright’s Black Boy in Richard Wright’s Black Boy(American Hunger).", pp.149~169 (2003), New York: Oxford UP
- Spivak, Gayatri, "In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics" (1988), New York: Routledge
- Watson, Edward A, "Bessie’s Blues", pp.54~59 (1990), New York: Chelsea House Publishers
- Western, Robin, "Richard Wright: Author of Native Son and Black Boy" (2002), NJ: Enslow Publishers
- Wright, Richard, "How ‘Bigger’ Was Born in Native Son", pp.7~14 (1966), New York: Harper & Row
- Wright, Richard, "Native Son" (1966), New York: Harper & Row