Kate Chopin의 The Awakening에 나타난 Edna의 자아추구에 관한 연구 = (A) Study on Edna's Self-Realization in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The Awakening was published by Kate Chopin in 1899. The main character, Edna, was raised strictly in a Protestant family. After marriage with Leonce, she lived in the Creole society. Creole society had double standards. When they speak, they pretend to be liberal, but, in real life, they are very conservative.
At the age of 28, she started to recognize her self-identity. Edna was just another mother-woman with two children. Society permitted Edna only to be a wife of a husband and mother of two boys. One summer vacation, she fell in love with a Creole bachelor, Robert. She wanted to be herself. Finally, however, she denied herself as belonging to her husband.
Edna loved Robert as the only love in her life. Robert was the only one she wanted to be with. Because Robert was also a Creole, he could not help believing that Edna belonged to Leonce, not to herself. But self-fulfillment was impossible for her. Of course, there were many characters with varied lives around her. But among them, Edna couldn't find a proper model for herself.
She also realized that the society to which she belonged was forcing her to be only a mother-woman. However, she didn't want to satisfy that unfair social expectation. But she was not strong enough to claim a new self-identity. She had no choice but to choose death.
At the end of the 19th century, this story was not acceptable in main stream society. In America, during that period, the idea of self-identification for women was far below the surface. At that time Napoleonic Law made up marriage rules. Most of the people in that period did not think a woman could identify herself as a human being. Chopin's philosophy was far beyond the norms of the times.
The Awakening was prohibited in libraries. Her life as a writer declined after this piece. Chopin could not be accepted in that society. She was regarded as a dirty writer who dealt with the unhealthy sex life of women. Her work was far beyond general social awareness.
It had to be buried more than 50 years. In 1953, French critic, Cryille Arnavon looked at this work again. A number of reviews were done on the work after that, even though the work had been devalued because of a lack of understanding. Now, it is regarded as a great book. Now, it is taught in universities as a classic.
Edna did not want to surrender to the regulations that serve only as bondage for women. In a sense, the problem with self-identification is one of the most important topics for all of us. Still, there are problems for women, especially for married women. We have to find reasonable solutions to overcome the conflicts between the social demands for women and their existence as human beings.
Actually, women liberation is in the same context of human liberalization. Self-identification was not only Edna's personal problem, but it can also be regarded as a problem for all human beings alive today. All of us have to do our best to try to find out the best solution for the problems of men and women.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 목차
• I. 서론 = 1
• II. 시대적 상황과 당대의 평가 = 5
• (1) 당시의 시대적 상황 = 5
• (2) 『자각』에 대한 당대의 평가 = 11
• III. 에드나의 자아완성 = 15
• IV. 에드나의 자살 - 자아추구의 완성과 실패 = 22
• (1) 부정적인 견해 = 23
• (2) 긍정적인 견해 = 26
• (3) 중립적인 견해 = 29
• (4) 자살의 의미 = 30
• V. 결론 = 39
• 참고문헌 = 43
• Abstract = 45