지배 담론에 대한 저항 세력으로서의 하인들

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The life of servants and the significance of their roles in the class conflicts of the early modern period have not received much critical attention in historical or literary research. This study examines to what extent servants may be seen as a subversive force in this period, principally through the evidence presented in Shakespeare's comedies, as well as those works of his contemporaries. Disaffection among servants is clear in their challenges to the ideology of the dominant class that formed the economic and political discourses of the period, while masters often found it necessary to repress servants' dissenting voices.
To locate the potential of this subversive force within institutionalized servitude, I begin with an investigation of servants as a sociological entity in an historical context, according to both contemporary and modern definitions. This helps because these definitions reveal that there have always been grounds on which the servant classes could be regarded as a threatening force to the established hierarchy. Most servants were young people between their early teens and late twenties 'that is, the group naturally resistant to the strictures of the social order. This basis of rebelliousness is compounded by their economical and social disadvantages, and the insecurity of unreliable contracts on their masters' terms, which would cultivate further dissent to the dominant political discourses of Shakespeare's time. The changing economic system of early modern society also prompted servants to protest increasingly about the disappearance of ideal master and servant relationships.
This historical study is an attempt to present the function of servants as critical voices against the dominant ideology. It may also be said that this is a germinal study to shed light on the oppression that servants, a marginalized sector of society, might have experienced in early modern England. By examining the strategies of the masters to control their servants in the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the socio-political meanings of servants' subversive potential will be fully revealed.