영국 페미니스트 극에 나타난 여성 작가들의 페미니즘 전략 - 케롤 처칠의 『소유자들』과 팸 젬스의 『두자, 피쉬, 스타스 그리고 비』를 중심으로

Abstract

This study aims to present feminist strategies of British feminist playwrights, especially focusing on Caryl Church and Pam Gems. They have similar life experiences and personal problems, for example, they always struggle between their job as playwrights and their duty as housewives and mothers. In their plays, they also deal with the struggles based on their experiences and the problems of woman oppression. As social feminists, they think capitalism has given men economic power to oppress and dominate women. To solve the issues of oppression and dominance between the genders, they believe that women should have jobs which will provide themselves with independent financial means and self-reliance. In Owners, Churchill emphasizes motherhood as her feminist strategy. Through Lisa who is a mother, Churchill insists that women must have both economic power to be free from male oppression and motherhood to transcend and embrace many problems that exist in capitalist society. In this play, Churchill proves that women should have jobs to be independent and have motherhood to care and help the others as well. She thinks motherhood can be a real powerful method to overcome isolation and negative products of capitalism. In Dusa, Fish, Star and Vi, Gems emphasizes sisterhood. Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi show their sisterhood to help each other and encourage them to solve their problems and overcome their difficulties with men in a patriarchal society. Through the successful self-reliance of Dusa, Stas and Vi, and the suicide of Fish, sisterhood among women is more helpful than political movements with men to raise women's rights and status in society. In this play, sisterhood in women communities can be an effective feminist strategy by strengthening women's mental growth and self-reliance in a patriarchal society. Churchill and Gems have common ideas that oppression of women traditionally originate from economic discrepancies between the genders, so women having jobs will be one way of freeing themselves from their subordination to men. And also women must preserve and cherish their sisterhood or motherhood, which can solve not only the women's own problems but also the problems which stem from capitalism. Although Churchill and Gems have different ideas in Owners and Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi, they think that motherhood or sisterhood can be effective and ideal feminist strategies.