본문 바로가기
KERD
논문KCI 등재

“내 안에서 꿈틀대는 것은 당신의 신성(神性)입니다”: [감상적 여행]의 아이러니에 대한 종교적 읽기

“This is thy divinity which stirs within me”: A Religious Interpretation of the Irony in Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey

0

조회

0

다운로드

0

인용

0

참고문헌

키워드

주제분류영어와문학

초록

This paper examines the use of irony in Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy in relation to the Anglican doctrine of original sin. Many critics have discussed the frequent use of sexual irony in Journey; however, few have acknowledged that Yorick’s enthusiastic endorsements of physical desires that frequently follow remarks loaded with sexual innuendo make the clerical first-person narrator an object of religious irony. Most notably, in his famous invocation of “Dear Sensibility” at the end of “The Bourbonnois”, Yorick’s ineptitude as a clergy is ironically revealed when he rapturously argues that he can directly ‘sense’ God’s presence through his own physical sensibility, thus violating the Anglican doctrine of original sin that emphasizes the fallen nature of the human body. Important is the fact that the irony in this invocation also discloses the rigidity of the Anglican view of the tainted human body, which forces the reader who subscribes to the teaching to interpret Yorick’s embrace of physical desire as inadequate and even blasphemous. In other words, the religious irony in the invocation intimates a sense of discontent with the Anglican teaching on the degeneracy of physical desires, which dissatisfaction suffuses the narrative and hinders its tone from settling as either comfortably sentimental or playfully ironical. The disconnect between the affable ambience created by multiple sentimental conventions and the religious discontentment revealed in the invocation’s irony is one of the sources behind the infamous tonal instability of Sterne’s novel.

Abstract

This paper examines the use of irony in Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy in relation to the Anglican doctrine of original sin. Many critics have discussed the frequent use of sexual irony in Journey; however, few have acknowledged that Yorick’s enthusiastic endorsements of physical desires that frequently follow remarks loaded with sexual innuendo make the clerical first-person narrator an object of religious irony. Most notably, in his famous invocation of “Dear Sensibility” at the end of “The Bourbonnois”, Yorick’s ineptitude as a clergy is ironically revealed when he rapturously argues that he can directly ‘sense’ God’s presence through his own physical sensibility, thus violating the Anglican doctrine of original sin that emphasizes the fallen nature of the human body. Important is the fact that the irony in this invocation also discloses the rigidity of the Anglican view of the tainted human body, which forces the reader who subscribes to the teaching to interpret Yorick’s embrace of physical desire as inadequate and even blasphemous. In other words, the religious irony in the invocation intimates a sense of discontent with the Anglican teaching on the degeneracy of physical desires, which dissatisfaction suffuses the narrative and hinders its tone from settling as either comfortably sentimental or playfully ironical. The disconnect between the affable ambience created by multiple sentimental conventions and the religious discontentment revealed in the invocation’s irony is one of the sources behind the infamous tonal instability of Sterne’s novel.

참고문헌 (21)

  1. 김진, "1760-70년대 영국 감상주의 소설에 나타난 감상적 아이러니", 박사, pp.2021
  2. Addison, Joseph, "Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays" (2004), Liberty Fund
  3. Addison, Joseph, "The Spectator Vol. 4" (1965), Oxford UP
  4. Descargues, Madeleine, "A Sentimental Journey, or ‘The Case of (In)delicacy’", New, Critical Essays, 243~253
  5. Dussinger, John A., "The Sensorium in the World of A Sentimental Journey", Ariel, 13(2), pp.3~16 (1982)[DOI]
  6. Keymer, Thomas, "The Cambridge Companion to Laurence Sterne", pp.79~94 (2009), Cambridge UP
  7. Keymer, Thomas, "Sterne, the Moderns, and the Novel" (2002), Oxford UP
  8. Leibniz, G. W., "Correspondence" (2000), Hackett
  9. Nagle, Christopher, "Sexuality and the Culture of Sensibility in the British Romantic Era" (2007), Palgrave Macmillan
  10. New, Melvyn, "The Odd Couple: Laurence Sterne and John Norris of Bemerton", Philological Quarterly, 75(3), pp.361~385 (1996)[DOI]
  11. New, Melvyn, "Proust’s Influence on Sterne: Remembrance of Things to Come", pp.177~197
  12. New, Melvyn, "Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison and Sterne: A Study in Influence", Modern Philology, 115(2), pp.213~243 (2017)[DOI]
  13. New, Melvyn, "Critical Essays on Laurence Sterne" (1998), G. K. Hall
  14. Newton, Isaac, "Opticks or A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections & Colours of Light" (1952), Dover Publications
  15. Parnell, Tim, "Introduction", Parnell
  16. Parnell, Tim, "Explanatory Notes", Parnell
  17. Parnell, Tim, "By Laurence Sterne" (2008), Oxford UP
  18. Sterne, Laurence, "The Levite and His Concubine", Parnell
  19. Sterne, Laurence, "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" (2003), Penguin Books
  20. Sterne, Laurence, "A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick", Parnell
  21. Sterne, Laurence, "Vindication of Human Nature", Parnell

관련 논문AI추천

이 간행물의 다른 논문 (3건)