17세기는 영국여성에게 모순적인 상황을 던져 준 시대였다. 출판과 교육을 비롯한 지적 영역에서 여성을 공식적으로 배제한 시기였음에도 불구하고, 두 번의 내전과 왕정복고 등 정치적 격동기를 겪으며 더 많은 여성이 글을 쓰기 시작했기 때문이다. 이런 모순은 어떻게 설명될 수 있을까?
본고는 17세기 여성작가들이 처한 현실과 이를 타개하는 방식을 살펴봄으로써 ...이런 모순을 해명하고자 한다. 17세기에 글을 쓰는 여성은 ‘침묵을 여성의 가장 중요한 덕목으로 삼은 여성이데올로기’와 ‘출판이란 남성의 영역이라는 성별 분리에 근간한 가부장제 이데올로기’ 때문에 작가가 되는 것과는 상충되는 상황에 직면해 있었다. 하지만 여성작가에게 가해진 도덕적 비난과 사회적 압박이 여성을 침묵하게 만들지는 못했다. 오히려 여성작가는 다양한 글쓰기 전략을 통해 이런 문제를 해결해 갔다. 예를 들어 유약하다는 통념을 빌미로 삼거나 여성에게 어울리는 주제를 택하기도 했다. 또한 부담이 덜한 동성 독자를 대상으로 책을 펴거나 직접 자신의 책을 쓰기보다 번역을 통해 자기주장을 에둘러 표현하는 경우도 있었다. 나아가 어머니의 권위를 빌려 작가로서의 권위를 당당히 주장하기도 했다.
이런 방법은 흔히 기존의 여성관을 답습하는 듯 보이는 탓에 전략이라기보다는 어쩔 수 없는 선택이었고 그만큼 작가의 권위를 세우는 효과가 부족하다고 보았다. 하지만 글을 쓰는 여성에 대한 상당한 사회적 압력을 감안하면 관습적인 여성관을 그대로 수용하는 가장 소극적인 형태라도 전략으로 읽을 여지가 있다. 설령 책 내용이 관습적일지라도 여성이 책을 출판하는 일까지 관습적인 것은 결코 아니었기 때문이다. 따라서 17세기에는 여성이 작가가 된다는 사실만으로도 성별에 따른 공사영역 분리에 토대를 둔 당대 가부장제 문화에 하나의 도전일 수 있었다.
In 17th century England, women were in contradictory situations. Many women began to read and write books, though women were still barred from intellectual spheres such as publication and education under the patriarchal system which demarcated public and private roles of man and woman. How can we understand these situations? I tried to explain contradictory situations by examining the reality which female writers of 17th century had to deal with and by analyzing the methods which they used to solve these problems. Female writers of 17th century were facing two situations incompatible with being ‘a writer’. One was the prevalence of the view that silence is the most important virtue of women. Thus, the fact that a woman became a writer meant that she was in danger of staining her honor. The other one was the patriarchal system in which the belief was held that publishing was an area reserved for men. Thus, the fact that a woman became a writer meant that she was about to invade a domain of men.
However, moral blame and social pressure couldn't silence female writers. Female writers solved these problems by various writing strategies. While some hid their identity anonymously to avoid criticism, some were recognized as author after disclosing their gender. Some women, for example, used the popular belief that women are weak and inferior as justification for their publication. Other writers wrote their books mainly targeting people of their own sex, or chose to translate books rather than to write original books. Furthermore, some were recognized as authors through the authority obtained through their motherhood. As these methods corresponded with the traditional view of women of the time, they appear as having been inevitable choices rather than writing strategies. But if we consider the social pressure which female writers of the 17th century were exposed to, we will understand their choice to write as a strategy. The fact that a woman published her book was not conventional, though her book was conventional. Thus the fact that a woman become a writer in 17th century should be considered a serious challenge to the patriarchal system.
Durante la primera mitad de siglo las mujeres se van incorporando paulatinamente al mundo del trabajo y las intelectuales, llegan a ocupar diversos espacios en el circuito de la cultura y el arte. ...Sin embargo, estas aparentes conquistas de los movimientos sociales y feministas en el continente, son significados en los relatos de gran parte de las escritoras chilenas en tanto pérdida de los privilegios oligárquicos del ocio y la cultura, que las ubica en una tensionada relación entre la nostalgia patriarcal (tras la crisis del latifundio), la ansiada (u obligada) independencia económica y la crítica a la precarización y disciplinamiento del mundo del trabajo. Me interesa analizar las significancias que cobra la «escritura» para estas autoras en el entrecruce entre la obtención del «cuarto propio» y la (in)dependencia de género.
Introduction Gómez, Leila
Teaching Gender through Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Texts and Cultures
Book Chapter
This volume has arisen as a response to the questions that department colleagues and I had a few years ago about how to teach gender issues and feminism today.1 On the one hand, some of us had ...experienced the skepticism of some students regarding the validity of feminism and gender awareness nowadays. These students perceived feminism as something from the past, tied to the historical struggle of women over suffrage, legal status and reproductive rights.