헤일의 『여성강연가』에 나타난 역설과 문화적 의미

초록

Contrary to the long-held conceptualization of woman’s sphere as a domestic space in nineteenth-century America, it is noticeable that there were a number of female orators who spoke in public on various topical issues. The figure of a woman orator in the public sphere clearly embodies a paradox which cannot be advocated by the theory of separate spheres. This paper aims to examine this paradox embedded in the figure of a woman orator and its cultural significances by reading Sarah Josepha Hale’s The Lecturess, or, Woman’s Sphere (1839). This novel deals with the life of Marian Gayland, a woman speaker in public, who strongly supports the ideas of woman’s rights and abolition. However, she forgoes her career as a woman orator when she succumbs to marry William Forrester who never appreciates Marian’s causes or her performance as woman orator. More shockingly, the novel ends with a tragic death of Marian who regretfully recants her former positioning at her deathbed. It seems that this cautionary tale shows Hale’s conservative view in regard to gender norms of her day. However, Hale, a long-time editor of Godey’s Lady’s Magazine, has been mistakenly argued to be a conservative supporter of the conventional role of womanhood of her day. On the contrary, her writing and career often prove to be far from adherent to rigid cultural norms. In the same vein, the ending of The Lecturess does not merely an evident return to “moral slavery” but a necessary step in the gradual move toward the flowering of woman’s oratory later on. The novel, then, presents Hale’s strategic effort to hide her subversive message in a tale of defeat.

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