가면 뒤의 여성: 아프라 벤의 『가장한 고급 창부들』 연구
The Woman Behind the Mask: A Study on Aphra Behn’s The Feigned Courtesans
0
조회
0
다운로드
0
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
There is no doubt that Aphra Behn(1640-1689) should be placed as a representative female writer of the Restoration theatre. With women’s writing being regarded as a kind of prostitution by selling herself on the public arena during her time, Behn attained a new name—‘auth-whore’, which is frequently used by the critics to describe her. Throughout her oeuvre, prostitution stands out as a recurrent theme, emphasizing its similarity to marriage in the aspect that women are traded as a commodity in a patriarchal society where women are categorized according to the preservation of their virginity: virgin or whore. This binary conception of woman is questioned in Behn’s plays. The Feigned Courtesans in particular, by using the mask, represents two conceptions of women as either virgin or whore simultaneously in one body. Focusing on The Feigned Courtesans, this paper aims to explore how Behn provokes questions about gender ideology of women’s sexuality and identity and demolishes the binary conception of woman by using the courtesan’s mask. In the introduction, the overall importance of courtesans and prostitution and mask in Behn’s oeuvre is discussed. Part II “Wearing the courtesan’s mask” examines the significance of three heroines’ choice of feigning the courtesan. All of them, women of quality and high status, willingly decide to disguise themselves as courtesans. Interestingly, with their appearance as courtesans signifying their identity as courtesans, the courtesan’s mask leaves their real identity unquestioned, and enables the heroines to move beyond their limited space and enjoy their freedom. Part III “Taking off the courtesan’s mask” examines the inevitability of unmasking and its significance. To be included in their society, the heroines cannot help abandoning the courtesan’s masks and returning to their real identity. Besides, they should prove their virginity to achieve their love. The conclusion part considers the significance of Behn’s treatment of her heroines’ final return to their society. Behn had to negotiate with her society by returning them to the patriarchal society and thus relieving the dangerous transgression of the heroines’ masquerade as courtesans. However, instead of being blamed for her limits, Behn deserves a positive evaluation. Within her limits Behn fully questioned the patriarchal ideology regarding women’s sexuality and binary positionality within the frame of the comedy on the Restoration stage.
Abstract
There is no doubt that Aphra Behn(1640-1689) should be placed as a representative female writer of the Restoration theatre. With women’s writing being regarded as a kind of prostitution by selling herself on the public arena during her time, Behn attained a new name—‘auth-whore’, which is frequently used by the critics to describe her. Throughout her oeuvre, prostitution stands out as a recurrent theme, emphasizing its similarity to marriage in the aspect that women are traded as a commodity in a patriarchal society where women are categorized according to the preservation of their virginity: virgin or whore. This binary conception of woman is questioned in Behn’s plays. The Feigned Courtesans in particular, by using the mask, represents two conceptions of women as either virgin or whore simultaneously in one body. Focusing on The Feigned Courtesans, this paper aims to explore how Behn provokes questions about gender ideology of women’s sexuality and identity and demolishes the binary conception of woman by using the courtesan’s mask. In the introduction, the overall importance of courtesans and prostitution and mask in Behn’s oeuvre is discussed. Part II “Wearing the courtesan’s mask” examines the significance of three heroines’ choice of feigning the courtesan. All of them, women of quality and high status, willingly decide to disguise themselves as courtesans. Interestingly, with their appearance as courtesans signifying their identity as courtesans, the courtesan’s mask leaves their real identity unquestioned, and enables the heroines to move beyond their limited space and enjoy their freedom. Part III “Taking off the courtesan’s mask” examines the inevitability of unmasking and its significance. To be included in their society, the heroines cannot help abandoning the courtesan’s masks and returning to their real identity. Besides, they should prove their virginity to achieve their love. The conclusion part considers the significance of Behn’s treatment of her heroines’ final return to their society. Behn had to negotiate with her society by returning them to the patriarchal society and thus relieving the dangerous transgression of the heroines’ masquerade as courtesans. However, instead of being blamed for her limits, Behn deserves a positive evaluation. Within her limits Behn fully questioned the patriarchal ideology regarding women’s sexuality and binary positionality within the frame of the comedy on the Restoration stage.
참고문헌 (47)
- 홍유미, "“나의 남성적 부분 내 안의 시인”: 아프라 벤과 위반으로서의 여성 글쓰기", 고전 르네상스 영문학, 11(1), pp.6~144 (2002), 한국 고전 르네상스 영문학회
- Altaba-Artal, Dolors, "Aphra Behn’s English Feminism: Wit and Satire" (1999), Associated UP
- Behn, Aphra, "The Rover and Other Plays" (2000), Oxford UP
- Bobker, Danielle, "Auth-whore or Writer? Authorship and Identity in The Rover", Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research, 11(1), pp.32~39 (1996)
- Carlson, Susan, "Women and Comedy: Rewriting the British Theatrical Tradition" (1991), U of Michigan P
- Castle,Terry, "Masquerade and Civilization: The Carnivalesque in Eighteenth Century English Culture and Fiction" (1986), Stanford UP
- Conway, Alison, "Flesh on the Mind: Behn Studies in the New Millennium", The Eighteenth Century, 44(1), pp.87~93 (2003)
- Cooper, Karol, "‘Too High for Souls like Mine to Hide’: Feminine Retreat and Exposure in Aphra Behn’s The Feign’d Curtizans", Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research, 23(1), pp.34~45 (2008)
- Copeland, Nancy, "Staging Gender in Behn and Centlivre: Women’s Comedy and the Theatre" (2004), Ashgate
- Cotton,Nancy, "Women Playwrights in England" (1980), Bucknell UP
- Craft-Fairchild, Catherine, "Masquerade and Gender: Disguise and Female Identity in Eighteenth-Century Fictions by Women" (1993), Pennsylvania State UP
- Cuder-Dominguez, Pilar, "‘Pretty Contradictions’: the Virgin Prostitutes of Aphra Behn’s The Feigned Courtesans (1679)", Sederi, 8, pp.129~133 (1997)
- Cuder-Dominguez, Pilar, "‘That dead commodity, a wife’: sexual and domestic economy in Aphra Behn’s comedies. Domestic Arrangements in Early Modern England", pp.103~123 (2002), Duquesne UP
- Cuder-Dominguez, Pilar, "Re-crafting the heroic, constructing a female hero: Margaret Cavendish and Aphra Behn", Sederi, 17, pp.27~45 (2007)
- Diamond, Elin, "Gestus and Signature in Aphra Behn’s The Rover", English Literary History, 56, pp.519~541 (1989)
- Duffy, Maureen, "The Passionate Shepherdess: Aphra Behn 1640-89" (1977), Cape
- Gallagher, Catherine, "Who was That Masked Woman? The Prostitute and the Playwright in the Comedies of Aphra Behn. Aphra Behn. New Casebooks" (1999), St. Martin’s P
- Goreau, Angeline, "Reconstructing Aphra: A Social Biography of Aphra Behn" (1980), Oxford UP
- Heyl, Christoph, "The Metamorphosis of the Mask in Seventeenth-and Eighteenth-century London. Masquerade and Identities: Essays on Gender, Sexuality, and Marginality", pp.114~134 (2001), Routledge
- Hobby,E, "Virtue of Necessity: English Women’s Writing 1649-88" (1988), Virago
- Howe, Elizabeth, "The First English Actresses: Women and Drama, 1660-1700" (1992), Cambridge UP
- Hughes, Derek, "The Masked Woman Revealed; or, the Prostitute and the Playwright in Aphra Behn Criticism", Women’s Writing, 7(2), pp.149~164 (2000)
- Hughes, Derek, "The Theatre of Aphra Behn" (2001), Palgrave
- Hughes, Derek, "Rape on the Restoration Stage", The Eighteenth Century, 46(3), pp.225~236 (2005)
- Hughes, Derek, "The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn" (2004), Cambridge UP
- Hutner, Heidi, "Rereading Aphra Behn: History, Theory, and Criticism" (1993), U of Virginia P
- Kreis-Schinck, Annette, "Women, Writing and the Theater in the Early Modern Period: The Plays of Aphra Behn and Susanne Centlivre" (2001), Fairleigh Dickinson UP
- Lewcock, Dawn, "Aphra Behn Stages the Social Scene in the Restoration Theatre" (2008), Cambria P
- Lowe, Mary Leah, "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Wedding: Gender Ideology and Narrative Structure in Romantic Comedy" (2001), UMI
- Lyons, Paddy, "Female Playwrights of the Restoration: Five Comedies" (1991), J. M. Dent & Sons
- Marsden, Jean I, "Fatal Desire: Women, Sexuality, and the English Stage, 1660-1720" (2006), Cornell UP
- Nagel, Christopher, "The Theatre of Aphra Behn", Comparative Drama, 36(3), pp.449~454 (2003)
- O’Donnell, Mary Ann, "Bhernard Dhuicq and Guyonne Leduc, eds. Aphra Behn(1640-1689): Identity, Ambiguity, Alterity" (2000), Harmattan
- Owens, W. R., "Shakespeare, Aphra Behn and the Canon" (1996), Routledge
- Pearson, Jacqueline, "The Prostituted Muse: Images of Women and Women Dramatists 1642-1737" (1988), Harvester P
- Rosenthal, Laura J, "Reading Masks: The Actress and the Spectatrix in Restoration Shakespeare. Broken Boundaries: Women & Feminism in Restoration Drama", pp.201~218 (1996), UP of Kentucky
- Spencer, Jane, "‘Deceit, Dissembling, all that’s Woman’: Comic Plot and Female Action in The Feigned Courtesans. Rereading Aphra Behn: History, Theory, and Criticism", pp.86~101 (1993), U of Virginia P
- Spencer, Jane, "Aphra Behn’s Afterlife" (2000), Oxford UP
- Staves, Susan, "Behn, Women, and Society.” The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn", pp.12~28 (2004), Cambridge UP
- Todd, Janet, "Aphra Behn Studies" (1996), Cambridge UP
- Todd, Janet, "The Secret Life of Aphra Behn" (1997), Rutgers UP
- Todd, Janet, "The Critical Fortunes of Aphra Behn" (1998), Camden House
- Todd, Janet, "Aphra Behn. New Casebooks" (1999), St. Martin’s P
- Tseёlon, Efrat, "Masquerade and Identities: Essays on Gender, Sexuality, and Marginality" (2001), Routledge
- Weber, Harold, "The Restoration Rake-Hero: Transformations in Sexual Understanding in Seventeenth-Century England" (1986), U of Wisconsin P
- Wright, Stephanie Hodgson, "The Theatre of Aphra Behn", Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research, 17(1), pp.105~16 (2002)
- Woods, Susanne, "Teaching Tudor and Stuart Women Writers", Modern Language Association (2000)