크리스티나 로제티의 후기시 『시』(Verses)의 침묵과 비전

Abstract

Christina Rossetti wrote a lot of devotional poetry in an age when social restriction on women was the common rule. As an Anglo- Catholic Rossetti was influenced by Tractarianism, which pursued the principle of Reserve. The concept of Reserve is that since God is ultimately incomprehensible, we can know Him only indirectly. The truth of God is hidden and given to us only in a manner suited to our capacities for apprehending it. Reserve denotes the indirection necessary in speaking of religious matters as indirection used by God Himself in conveying truths to humankind. It is the holding back and the gradual unfolding of the knowledge of the Infinite. Likewise, Rossetti makes use of silence, reticence, restraint, veiling of meaning in her devotional poems. While the doctrine of Reserve says the truth is hidden and revealed gradually, Augustine seeks to grapple the challenge of how (not) to speak of God which exceeds and resists conceptualization. When we speak of God, one reduces God's transcendence to the immanence of language and concepts, or one remains silent. Augustine says that an incarnational account of language does justice to the alterity of God. When the Word became flesh, the transcendent God descended into the realm of immanence. The Incarnation made it possible to bridge the chasm between humanity and God. By the account of incarnation, Augustine is able to understand language which grants access to things, but at the same time leaves them in their transcendence. For Augustine, the inexpressible was able to be expressed by Incarnational poetics. As in the doctrine of Reserve, something indescribable can be described by incarnational poetics. The silence in the poetry of Rossetti can be connected to the principle of Reserve so that this poetic silence was not passive acceptance of external world but active participation of God's Reserve. God hides the divine truth but reveals it gradually at the same time. Rossetti uses the imagery of death, darkness, concealment, and silence as in the principle of Reserve. Therefore Rossetti not only preserved silence and reserve but also sublimated them to a heavenly realm through Verses . At the end she enjoys the promised oneness with God. Through this light of heaven Rossetti shows visions for the future. The achievement of Rossetti is that she became the representative voice of the Christians in the Victorian period.