유혹소설에서 가정소설로: 세즈윅의 『뉴잉글랜드 이야기』의 여성 재현을 중심으로

초록

This paper explores Sedgwick’s A" New" England" Tale as a work which shows transitional features from the seduction novel to the domestic novel in the plot and the representation of woman. Sedgwick uses the motif of seduction many of early American women novelists employed, but incorporates it into the novel's sub"plots. These sub"plots delineate morally deficient women characters who defame themselves by falling prey to seduction. These sub"plots contribute to emphasizing the triumph of a domestic heroine, Jane Elton. On the one hand, as a paragon of a woman's role prescribed by the “Republican Ideology,” Jane succeeds in marrying a virtuous man,fulfilling the duties of a Republican ideal of family as the backbone of the state. On the other hand, Jane prefigures a heroine with the virtues defined by the “True Womanhood” of the mid"nineteenth century,who stands out in domestic novels such as Susan Warner’s The"Wide,"Wide"World and Maria Cummins‘s The Lamplighter. Foregrounding Jane as the protagonist, A" New-England" Tale records a transitional moment from the seduction novel to the domestic novel by dramatizing an ideal Republican woman with virtues, who also prefigures a heroine defined by domestic ideology.

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