한국계미국소설에 나타난 여성과 민족주의 —핼리 리의 『쌀이 있는 정물』과 미아 윤의 『바람의 집』
Women and Nationalism in Korean American Novels: Helie Lee's Still Life with Rice and Mia Yun's House of the Winds
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Asian American novelists show a tendency to deal with conflicts between the desire to sustain a special relationship with the mother country and the wish to be accepted as a ‘perfect’ American. While America functions as a central scene of ethnic or cultural conflicts, the mother country becomes a backbone of identity formation. Consequently, Asian American novels tend to be saturated with nationalism. Women become marginalized in the nationalism discourse closely connected with the patriarchal ideology, though they are deeply involved in the process of the nation building. While men are regarded as subjects of the nation, women are considered just as biological reproducers of their own ethnic groups and, at best, as moral guides and transmitters of their culture. As a result, women become symbolized as noble mother figures, while they suffer gender discrimination. Korean American novels have become the arena for experimentation with the complex relationships of women and nationalism. Female protagonists or narrators in Korean American novels reveal the very intersections of gender and other issues, such as citizenship, ethnicity and nation. The purpose of this essay is to study how women and nationalism are represented in two Korean American novels, Helie Lee's Still Life with Rice and Mia Yun's House of the Winds. The authors focus on the aspect of conflicts and compromises arising from the relation of women and nationalism. Here, the mother country Korea, as a spiritual backbone and foundation of their identities, appears closely connected with their own mothers, who have not only successfully survived the oppressive atmosphere of Korean patriarchal society, Japanese colonization, civil war, poverty, and loneliness, but also raised and supported their children without any help from their husbands. Through recalling and realizing their mothers' past difficulties, strength, devotion and sacrifice, protagonists accept these strong mother figures as a symbol of their mother country Korea, and finally succeed in establishing their own proud identity as Korean Americans. These mother figures seem to be similar with the noble mother figure idealized in the nationalism ideology. However, Helie Lee's and Mia Yun's mother figures reject the mother image ‘invented’ in the nationalism discourse, but reflect new motherhood capable of opening a possibility of new nationalism.
Abstract
Asian American novelists show a tendency to deal with conflicts between the desire to sustain a special relationship with the mother country and the wish to be accepted as a ‘perfect’ American. While America functions as a central scene of ethnic or cultural conflicts, the mother country becomes a backbone of identity formation. Consequently, Asian American novels tend to be saturated with nationalism. Women become marginalized in the nationalism discourse closely connected with the patriarchal ideology, though they are deeply involved in the process of the nation building. While men are regarded as subjects of the nation, women are considered just as biological reproducers of their own ethnic groups and, at best, as moral guides and transmitters of their culture. As a result, women become symbolized as noble mother figures, while they suffer gender discrimination. Korean American novels have become the arena for experimentation with the complex relationships of women and nationalism. Female protagonists or narrators in Korean American novels reveal the very intersections of gender and other issues, such as citizenship, ethnicity and nation. The purpose of this essay is to study how women and nationalism are represented in two Korean American novels, Helie Lee's Still Life with Rice and Mia Yun's House of the Winds. The authors focus on the aspect of conflicts and compromises arising from the relation of women and nationalism. Here, the mother country Korea, as a spiritual backbone and foundation of their identities, appears closely connected with their own mothers, who have not only successfully survived the oppressive atmosphere of Korean patriarchal society, Japanese colonization, civil war, poverty, and loneliness, but also raised and supported their children without any help from their husbands. Through recalling and realizing their mothers' past difficulties, strength, devotion and sacrifice, protagonists accept these strong mother figures as a symbol of their mother country Korea, and finally succeed in establishing their own proud identity as Korean Americans. These mother figures seem to be similar with the noble mother figure idealized in the nationalism ideology. However, Helie Lee's and Mia Yun's mother figures reject the mother image ‘invented’ in the nationalism discourse, but reflect new motherhood capable of opening a possibility of new nationalism.
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