「男でも女でもないそれ以上の何か」 : ジェンダーから読むWinesburg, Ohio

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Much description about sexual troubles, conflicts or oppression, in Winesburg, Ohio has been stimulating the readers to clarify its significance and functions. This issue was one of the reasons why the novel was unfavorably ctiticised just after its publication. Still in 1919 there survived the remains of puritanically genteel tradition in literary criticism, which regards sexual matters as unworthy to think of. However, in the post Freud era, the readers never fail to perceive Sherwood Anderson's insight about sexuality as real aspects of human existence. Even rough reading leads us to find the mutual permeation between the sexual desire and spiritual aspiration which the characters are tortured with. Sex cannot be explained only from sex; spirit cannot be explained only from spirit. This is one of the recognitions we share in the present, postmodern age when all kinds of dichotomy, including a binal oppsition of flesh and soul, already have been deconstructed. Some feminist critics notice that the sexual conflicts of the female characters are more compassionately described than those of the male ones. As one feminist points out, this is because the author identifies the feminine with a pervasive presence of a fragile, vulnerable, hidden something that seeks tenderness, communication and deep relationship in body and soul. Yet this kind of criticism should be blamed for its essentialism, since it presupposes that the feminine belongs to women. Women are not necessarily feminine; men are not always masculine. Anyway it is certatin that the author sympathizes more with the female characters, but it does not mean that this novel is in favor of feminism. In the novel men are allowed to leave their small town, but women are confined within their suffocating life with frustration and irritation. Men are qualified to consume and use women's love and concerns, though women are expected to be exploited by men. As a whole, Winesburg, Ohio is one of the stereotyped, male-centered novels in which various kinds of victimization of women are repeatedly presented. But what we should pay more attention to about this novel is not the author's sympathetic but traditionally sexist attitudes toward women, but the occasional, brilliant moments when something beyond the gender system are revealed. A strange man in "Tandy" confesses that he has been longing and looking for an ideal woman, "something more than man or woman." In "Sophistication," George and Helen feel embarrassed in their encounter, because their respect and love to each other is impossible to be represented in the customs and codes which the gender-bound society implicitly forces lovers to accept and obey. Kate in "Teacher" does not know how to express her love except in eccentric ways, because she is too sensible and too intelligent to get involved to the sexual relationships which the gender-bound society expects her to have. Gender is a hierarchial order of sexes; gender devides people into men as upper, dominant class and women as lower, subordinate class. The sexual troubles of the female characters are caused by their gender-bound society, which makes it difficult to create and keep equal, fair sexual relationships and communication between men and women. Needless to say such a sexual hierarchical system obstructs not only the fulfilment of women's love but also that of men's. Some male characters also suffer from sexual expoitation, because they are required to be strong enough to be utilized by women. Love is impossible in the gender-bound system. Sexual relationship is likely to be mutual exclusive and mutual expoitative there. The significance of a prevalent presence of sexual troubles in Winesburg, Ohio lies in that the distortions and absurdities that the gender-bound system impose on people are exposed through them. Although Anderson did not know about a "gender" concept at all, which has been academized since 1970s, his insight and sensibility enabled him to grasp what we call the gender troubles. Winesburg, Ohio is gender-bound in the episodes and anecdota, but it dreams and visions "something more than man or woman" in a utopia beyond gender. If this novel's tone sounds dark and gloomy, it is partly due to the impossibility of a utopia.
1998-12-21

「男でも女でもないそれ以上の何か」 : ジェンダーから読むWinesburg, Ohio

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