The aim of this paper is to reveal how the domestic tragedies of early modern England construct and contain the female subject, thereby simultaneously supporting and subverting the dominant ideology ...which subjugates the female autonomy while privileging the male authority in the household. Six representative domestic tragedies are analyzed in this paper, focusing on the construction and containment of the female subject. The first two tragedies, Arden of Faversham and A Warning of Fair Women, show how the early domestic tragedies construct the female subject while ostentatiously serving the dominant patriarchal ideology. The autonomous female subject of these tragedies is constructed by Alice Arden`s declaration of self-rule and Anne Sanders`s skillful manipulation of the "repentant sinner" cliche. Though the moment of their autonomy is only short and temporary, soon to be contained, the sheer possibility of the construction of the female subjectivity and its disturbing subversive energy still survive even after the formal renunciation of these women in the plays, making the plays extremely ambiguous and ambivalent. On the contrary, Woman Killed with Kindness absolutely contains the construction of the female subject, constructing the autonomous male subject instead. This play shows that the autonomy of the male subject depends on the subjection of woman, only to reveal the inhuman mechanism of the patriarchy, making this conservative play the most subversive one. The last three domestic tragedies, Two Lamentable Tragedies, The Miseries of Enforced Marriage, and A Yorkshire Tragedy, push this problematic of patriarchy to the limit, to show that the patriarchal ideology puts unbearable pressure to man as well as woman, thereby making it impossible to construct modern autonomous subject even for the male patriarchs. A Yorkshire Tragedy clearly shows how the inherent problems of patriarchal ideology destroy and hinder the construction of the autonomous male subject, not even with the subjection of woman, the ultimate recourse of the patriarchy itself.
This essay analyzes the story "Kikumushi" (The Chrysanthemum Beetle) by the noted woman writer Tsushima Yūko (b. 1947). Though most Japanese critics claim that Tsushima's writings have a narrow ...focus, revolving around a few, readily identifiable "themes" and "motifs" such as the brother-sister incest, the marginalization of single mothers and their children in contemporary Japanese society, the meaninglessness and absurdity of family ties/blood relationships and the various ways in which lonely, defiant women challenge traditional discourses on motherhood and female sexuality, "Kikumushi" demonstrates that Tsushima's texts not only display a complex narrative structure, but articulate critiques that transcend the Japanese context and raise important questions for feminist cross-cultural analyses. By contrasting "Kikumushi" with the sarayashiki (Manor-of-the-Dishes) tradition which significantly structures Tsushima's narrative, by bringing several theoretical perspectives to bear on, and especially by highlighting the play of fantasy in the story, this study shows that, in the face of a non-anthropocentric, continually shifting mythical discursive space such as that envisioned by Tsushima our habitual interpretive strategies—even the most "subversive" and "politically correct" ones—are largely inadequate and that a new critical discourse has to be invented. 要旨:批評界や文芸ジャーナリズムでは津島佑子は妊娠・出産・育児等、女性特有の経験を中心に、数少ない特定のテーマやモチーフを繰り返し追求している作者のように思われている。つまり津鳥が捉えようとしているテーマやモチーフが知恵遅れの兄(弟)とその妹(姉)との近親相姦、未婚の母・離婚した母やその子供の、生々しい、愛や暴力や殺意に満ちた日常生活、女の身体性(セクシュアリテイー)等、現代における女性を中心とした人間関係の新たな様相の表現への模索である。本稿では津島の短褊「菊虫」(『逢摩物語』所収、1984年発行)を取り上げる。作品の解読・解釈を行ないながら、津島文学についての、上記のような、一般的な読み方にとらわれず、作者のテクストが探り続ける文化的・思想的・政治的言説空間を捉えようと思う。そのためには、現在の国文学研究や文芸批評、フェミニズム批評や所謂“政治的に正しい批評”(politically correct criticism)のディスコースさえも超越した、新しい読み・批評のストラテジーを展開せねばならない。「菊虫」の場合、作者は、作品の中核である“嫉妬”をアイロニーや滑稽味やファン夕ジーの世界として表出しているが、この魅惑的言説空間を解読するための、新たな方法論の提示を筆者は意図するものである。
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