Speaking Stella and Silent Astrophil : An Unstable Gender Paradigm in Astrophil and Stella
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The first English sonnet sequence, Astrophil and Stella (1591) by Philip Sidney (1554-1586), has been traditionally considered to embody a powerful sense of subjective presence and philosophical trappings in relations to love and desire. Traditional literary criticism has long been preoccupied with the poet as a desiring subject in the Renaissance love lyrics while the beloved lady is passively and silently represented by a male voice. In her traditional idealization, bordering at times on idolatry, the beloved lady is in fact reduced to silence, which was the most virtuous ideal of feminine decorum in Elizabethan period. In search of the previously hidden or overlooked female voices, this study aims to reexamine the typically gendered paradigm in Sidney's sonnet sequence between a silent female beloved lady and a speaking male poet-lover. Although the Petrarchan mistress is sometimes silenced, in some significant cases she is not. Not only does Stella speak, but the power and significance of her speech are also found at several points in the sequence. It is notable that Stella's voice is represented equal to Astrophil's own. Being a proxy for the representation of the male poet-lover's self, and therefore assigned a silent and iconic function, she occasionally plays an active role, while the male poet is passive and silent. In front of Stella's authoritative and virtuous speech, Astrophil is presented helpless, passive and silent. Though the Eighth song offers Stella's most frank and first person description of her desire for Astrophil, she denies Astrophil. Facing her refusal, Astrophil turns to looking inward in his dark, private and silent state. The last sonnet is overtly artificial and conventional with its Petrarchan metaphors and sentiments and reveals a sense of inability: confined within a convention and unable to say anything else. Stella is enforced to silence but on occasion she repels Astrophil in her speaking in contrast with a passive, helpless and most of all silent Astrophil.
Abstract
The first English sonnet sequence, Astrophil and Stella (1591) by Philip Sidney (1554-1586), has been traditionally considered to embody a powerful sense of subjective presence and philosophical trappings in relations to love and desire. Traditional literary criticism has long been preoccupied with the poet as a desiring subject in the Renaissance love lyrics while the beloved lady is passively and silently represented by a male voice. In her traditional idealization, bordering at times on idolatry, the beloved lady is in fact reduced to silence, which was the most virtuous ideal of feminine decorum in Elizabethan period. In search of the previously hidden or overlooked female voices, this study aims to reexamine the typically gendered paradigm in Sidney's sonnet sequence between a silent female beloved lady and a speaking male poet-lover. Although the Petrarchan mistress is sometimes silenced, in some significant cases she is not. Not only does Stella speak, but the power and significance of her speech are also found at several points in the sequence. It is notable that Stella's voice is represented equal to Astrophil's own. Being a proxy for the representation of the male poet-lover's self, and therefore assigned a silent and iconic function, she occasionally plays an active role, while the male poet is passive and silent. In front of Stella's authoritative and virtuous speech, Astrophil is presented helpless, passive and silent. Though the Eighth song offers Stella's most frank and first person description of her desire for Astrophil, she denies Astrophil. Facing her refusal, Astrophil turns to looking inward in his dark, private and silent state. The last sonnet is overtly artificial and conventional with its Petrarchan metaphors and sentiments and reveals a sense of inability: confined within a convention and unable to say anything else. Stella is enforced to silence but on occasion she repels Astrophil in her speaking in contrast with a passive, helpless and most of all silent Astrophil.
참고문헌 (20)
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