1930년대 중국소설에 나타난 신여성 ‘아내’의 일면— 老舍의 <阳光>을 중심으로

Abstract

This paper brings attention to the negative depiction of modern ‘wife’ from a Chinese novel written in 1930s. In order to do so the paper Lao She’s work as its main subject. Lao She points out the faults of ‘wife’ from two main perspectives. One is the unwillingness or inability to carry out women’s roles. The other is the incongruency existing between understanding and action. This incongruency displayed by modern ‘wife’ manifests itself in two aspects. Firstly, despite seeking her existential value as a modern girl she lacks independence. Secondly, although she recognizes the irrationality of male dominant order she desires superior social status and material benefits offered within such dominant order. From Lao She’s views, such modern ‘wife’ is the scene where women displays otherized internal solidity and independently materialized existence. On the other hand, negative depiction of modern ‘wife’ contains following two meanings. One is the skepticism on modern times. Girls’ school and women education were important keywords representing modern times. Lao She points out that girls’ schools are place where ‘bad’ modern ‘wife’ is created and expresses skeptical views on girls’ school and women education. The other is the space where discouraged masculinity of intellectual men is compensated. Lao She places modern girl between intellectual men lacking in material and bourgeois men with material superiority. As modern girl chooses bourgeois men as her husband the hierarchy of masculinity is categorized into material/immaterial, superior/inferior. Such hierarchical relationship is overturned through the immorality of bourgeois man and misery of modern ‘wife’. Thus, the narrative structure involving the misery of material-seeking bad modern ‘wife’ complements the discouraged masculinity of intellectual men lacking in material.