루이자 메이 올컷의 대안적 돌봄공동체 연구:『일: 경험 이야기』를 중심으로 = A Study on Alternative Care Communities in Louisa May Alcott’s Work: A Story of Experience

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper examines Louisa May Alcott’s alternative care community envisioned in her 1872 novel Work: A Story of Experience. Critics have interpreted Work mostly as a story navigating possibilities of female self-fulfillment and financial independence through paid work in 19th century America. In addition, they have construed the progress of the heroine Christie from a job market to a domestic realm in the latter half of the novel as a kind of regression from a feminist point of view.
This article challenges the prevailing tendency in the current literature, reevaluating the notion of “work” as caring labor; moreover, it looks afresh at Christie’s quest as an attempt to re-situate caring labor within the framework of anti-market and anti-patriarchal relations. Alcott’s major works published in the 1860s and 1870s highlight the value of care and envision various forms of care-providing communities beyond the domain of Victorian home sustained by unpaid female care service.
In Work Alcott criticizes the reality of care in 19th century American society not only in terms of gender division but also in terms of market economy transforming care into alienated and low-paid wage labor.
Far from being a regression from a search for an independence to a normative domesticity,the female commune that Christie creates at the end of Work embodies Alcott’s ideal of an alternative, non-exploitive care community. Some feminist scholars have been wary of discourses of care due to their association with the motherhood as the ultimate source of care labor. Nevertheless, Work and Alcott’s other stories delving into the question of care demonstrate the radical potentials of care discourses as the catalyst for reconfiguration of socioeconomic structure and gender hierarchy.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 조한혜정, "가족에서 학교로 학교에서 마을로: 돌봄과 배움의 공동체" 또하나의문화 33-, 2006

2 하라금, "가족에서 학교로 학교에서 마을로: 돌봄과 배움의 공동체" 또하나의문화 56-, 2006

3 Louisa May Alcott, "Work: A Story of Experience" Penguin 1994

4 Catherine Hall, "White, Male and Middle Class: Explorations in Feminism and History" Polity P 1992

5 Alcott, "Transcendental Wild Oats"

6 Andreas Chatzidakis, "The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence" Verso 2020

7 Hi’ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart, "Radical Care: Survival Strategies for Uncertain Times" 38 (38): 1-16, 2020

8 Tara Fitzpatrick, "Love’s Labor’s Reward: The Sentimental Economy of Louisa May Alcott’s Work" 5 (5): 28-44, 1993

9 Elizabeth Lennox Keyser, "Little Women and the Feminist Imagination: Criticism, Controversy, Personal Essays" Garland Publishing 1999

10 Janis Dawson, "Little Women Out to Work: Women and the Marketplace in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and Work" 34 (34): 111-130, 2003

11 Louisa May Alcott, "Little Women" Penguin 484-, 1989

12 Louisa May Alcott, "Little Men" Puffin Books 1-, 2005

13 Madeleine B. Stern, "Introduction to Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott" Harper Collins 7-23, 1997

14 Elaine Showalter, "Introduction to Alternative Alcott" Rutgers UP 1997

15 Judith Fetterley, "Impersonating ‘Little Women’: The Radicalism of Alcott’s Behind a Mask" 10 (10): 1-14, 1983

16 Jean Fagan Yellin, "From Success to Experience: Louisa May Alcott’s Work" 21 (21): 527-539, 1980

17 Carol Thomas, "Deconstructing Concepts of Care" 27 (27): 664-665, 1993

18 Alcott, "Behind a Mask; Or, A Woman’s Power"

19 Sarah Elbert, "A Hunger for Home: Louisa May Alcott’s Place in American Culture" Rutgers UP 1987