남부 역사의 짐과 양가적 서사: 윌라 캐더(Willa Cather)의 『새파이라와 노예 소녀』(Sapphira and the Slave Girl)
The Burden of Southern History and The Ambivalent Narrative: Willa Cather's Sapphira and the Slave Girl
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This paper aims to explore Willa Cather’s attempt to confront the Old South with slavery in Sapphira and the Slave Girl, focusing on the way Sapphira, a white mistress, as well as black slaves and slavery are represented. In her selfish treatment of Till and her plot for making Nancy a victim of sexual assault, Sapphira is depicted as a cruel and evil mistress. Simultaneously she is presented as a courageous woman who confronts imminent death without losing human dignity as well as a kind and generous mistress taking care of her slaves' necessities. This ambivalent narration is repeated in treating black slave women, Till and Nancy. Despite being described as a typical 'Black Mammy' who devotes herself to managing the white mistress's household, Till reveals her motherly concerns for her daughter Nancy. Nancy attempts to protect her chastity from the sexual assaults of a white man Martin, resisting the image of promiscuous black slave woman. However, these somewhat non-stereotypical representations of black slave women are negated in the Epilogue in which Till speaks her own voice, only to repeat the dominant narrative by extolling Sapphira and her world. Likewise, even though the author criticizes the violent influences of slavery on the white dominant group by depicting how Sapphira’s desire for control is distorted in racializing slave women, she ends in repeating the plantation myth of the Old South. Thus, Willa Cather’s daring and crucial attempt to confront the burden of Southern history turns out to be unfruitful due to her inability to overcome her warm nostalgia for her own childhood in the Old South and her repeating ambivalent narratives of white mistress and black female slaves.
Abstract
This paper aims to explore Willa Cather’s attempt to confront the Old South with slavery in Sapphira and the Slave Girl, focusing on the way Sapphira, a white mistress, as well as black slaves and slavery are represented. In her selfish treatment of Till and her plot for making Nancy a victim of sexual assault, Sapphira is depicted as a cruel and evil mistress. Simultaneously she is presented as a courageous woman who confronts imminent death without losing human dignity as well as a kind and generous mistress taking care of her slaves' necessities. This ambivalent narration is repeated in treating black slave women, Till and Nancy. Despite being described as a typical 'Black Mammy' who devotes herself to managing the white mistress's household, Till reveals her motherly concerns for her daughter Nancy. Nancy attempts to protect her chastity from the sexual assaults of a white man Martin, resisting the image of promiscuous black slave woman. However, these somewhat non-stereotypical representations of black slave women are negated in the Epilogue in which Till speaks her own voice, only to repeat the dominant narrative by extolling Sapphira and her world. Likewise, even though the author criticizes the violent influences of slavery on the white dominant group by depicting how Sapphira’s desire for control is distorted in racializing slave women, she ends in repeating the plantation myth of the Old South. Thus, Willa Cather’s daring and crucial attempt to confront the burden of Southern history turns out to be unfruitful due to her inability to overcome her warm nostalgia for her own childhood in the Old South and her repeating ambivalent narratives of white mistress and black female slaves.
참고문헌 (31)
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