The Angst of the Homo Oeconomicus: Capitalism and Contrition in Daniel Defoe’s Roxana
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By focusing on how Defoe represents and critiques Roxana’s thorough capitalistic rationality which fabricates a convincing self-defensive narrative in Roxana, I argue that the novel reveals the author’s deep angst of a new mode of self-fashioning of homo oeconomicus. The authenticity of Roxana’s confessional but specious autobiographical narrative remains a critical conundrum due to its salient incongruity with the typical Protestant introspective self-discipline predicated on Christian instruction. Roxana’s seemingly remorseful remarks and confessions, which appear with a suspicious frequency in the novel, contradict themselves, as her peculiar narrative structure and strategy are indicative of a surreptitious intention of weaving her past nefarious acts into a feigned repentance to the aim of camouflaging her unvarying immorality and unceasing sexual and material desire. In Roxana Defoe captures and delves into the increasing tension between Protestant and material values in the newly emergent modern capitalism of his age, as well as its effect on the way in which the modern individual concocts a plausible narrative for herself. Moralism and materialism are, for Defoe, to be concatenated into a fabricated self-defensive narrative in the age of new homo oeconomicus.
Abstract
By focusing on how Defoe represents and critiques Roxana’s thorough capitalistic rationality which fabricates a convincing self-defensive narrative in Roxana, I argue that the novel reveals the author’s deep angst of a new mode of self-fashioning of homo oeconomicus. The authenticity of Roxana’s confessional but specious autobiographical narrative remains a critical conundrum due to its salient incongruity with the typical Protestant introspective self-discipline predicated on Christian instruction. Roxana’s seemingly remorseful remarks and confessions, which appear with a suspicious frequency in the novel, contradict themselves, as her peculiar narrative structure and strategy are indicative of a surreptitious intention of weaving her past nefarious acts into a feigned repentance to the aim of camouflaging her unvarying immorality and unceasing sexual and material desire. In Roxana Defoe captures and delves into the increasing tension between Protestant and material values in the newly emergent modern capitalism of his age, as well as its effect on the way in which the modern individual concocts a plausible narrative for herself. Moralism and materialism are, for Defoe, to be concatenated into a fabricated self-defensive narrative in the age of new homo oeconomicus.
참고문헌 (35)
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