여성영웅소설에 나타난 위반･봉합･균열의 문제

Abstract

This paper tries to overcome the dichotomy between resistance and obedience those were the key words for describing the Heroine Novels. From the feministic perspective, we can find the things that represent resistance to the patriarchy and the binary gender system in the heroine novels. On the other hand, we can also find the things encouraging obedience instead of criticism to the laws of patriarchy even in the same novels. In this paper, those things were designated as the terms of 'violation' and 'suture'. The 'crack' was designated as the term to mean anxiety and fear inherent in patriarchy. The perfect disguise of heroine was able to perform social roles as hero, while she has to be returned to her own sex. But it is to be reminded that the heroine can be the female by the female costume and even woman's disguise. In that sense, the heroine performed a successful trans-gendering. Concerned with the changes of heroine, there is a series of step-by-step processes. The heroine was a female who was not interested in woman's work, successfully disguised as a hero, and still remember for once she was a hero. Those changes and disguises mean the gendered body is constructed through a stylized repetition of acts and reveal that there is no natural and stable gender identity. The crack of gender identity can function a subversion of the binary gender system, because it is inherent in the patriarchal system. Finally, the heroine novels show the cracks in the patriarchy, which is the most important significance of those novels in the novel history.