『제인 에어』와 『각성』에 나타난 성욕과 가정성

Abstract

This paper is to examine sexuality and domesticity in Jane Eye and The Awakening. Recent discourses on sexuality often deconstruct the conventional notion of gender as well as masculine or male-centered concept of sexuality, in search of auto-eroticism and homo-sexual relationship. With these trends, critics question the necessity of home established by hetero-sexual relationship and the validity of domesticity accompanied by binary opposite gender roles. Domesticity which had been considered an important agenda to revalue women's role and female subjectivity with an analysis on political history of the rise of the middle class, came to be regarded as an ideology that represses women's desire and forcing them into unequal gender roles. Sexuality and domesticity, however, are not contradictory or totally incompatible concepts. In Jane Eyre and The Awakening, sexuality is represented as the drive and desire to make a home both for women and men, intended for their equal relationship and mutual acceptance of each other's desire. Their heroines' sexuality, along with their mental and economic independence, comprises the core part of their own home where female subjectivity activates and rules over. Although Jane and Edna’s social classes are different and their stories meet different endings, their efforts to express their sexuality and to fulfill their desire, can be read as insightful and even a provocative venture. Jane and Edna’s sexuality is far from anti-domestic attribute, but a true and essential element to unite and to harmonize men and women, which is the basic requirement for the 19th century domesticity.