헨리 제임스의 『보스턴 사람들』에 나타난 대중문화의 등장과 그 성격

Abstract

The Bostonians is a serious work of social criticism by Henry James portraying the American social landscape of the late nineteenth century with realistic touches. On the surface, The Bostonians deals very satirically with the feminist movement in Boston in the 1870s. However, the movement is not used as a main theme but instead as a background to suggest a larger commentary on America. The point of this novel does not lie simply in James's hostility to the movement itself. Rather, he invites readers to critically observe how American mass culture is peculiarly feminized and vulgarized as a result of the sudden and unprecedented changes and reforms during this period. The changing social scene is presented as a cultural clash through the consciousness of a conservative Southerner named Basil Ransom, whose political perspective is as equally one-sided and self-centered as that of the radical feminists. In this sense, this paper aims to take a closer look at how the feminist movement develops increasingly into a cultural phenomenon, which results in the feminization and vulgarization of American mass culture as a whole.