현대성 속의 전통 - 스타인과 앤더슨

The Role of Stein and Anderson in American Modernism

  이 논문의 의도는 미국문학에서 거트루드 스타인과 셔우드 앤더슨이 차지하는 일정한 역사적 의미와 역할을 규정하면서 그들의 문학이 지향하는 바가 어떻게 현대적이고 이 현대적 정신이 어떻게 미국적 상상력의 소산인가를 대표적인 작품과 자서전을 통하여 밝히려는데 있다. 논문은 모두 네 부분으로 구성되어 있는데, 제 1장에서는 주로 전기적 사실에 근거하여 이 두 작가의 개성과 역할에 관한 문학적 내지 문학사적 의의를 규명하였고, 제 2장의 스타인론에서는 비교적 전통적인 초기의 Three Lives에서 극도로 실험적인 Tender Buttons에 이르는 소위 스타인 문체의 전개과정을 논의하면서 이 파격적 모더니즘의 징후가 휘트먼류의 낙관적 자아탐닉의 소산임을 지적하였으며, 제 3장의 앤더슨론에서는 주로 Winesburg, Ohio와 Dark Laughter의 분석을 통하여 로렌스 내지 프로이드적인 직관으로 사회의 인습적 가치를 부정하는 이 작가의 현대적 정신에서 트웨인과 휘트먼의 에덴과 민주주의의 미국적 상상력이 얼마나 큰 배경인가를 밝히고 있다. 제 4장은 결론인데, 스타인과 앤더슨이 함께 계도한 미국 모더니즘은 새로운 국면이면서도 유럽 모더니즘의 반전통과 고립, 허무의식과 달리 트웨인과 휘트먼의 긍정과 낙관의 비젼을 일면 물려받고 있음을 논하였다.

&nbsp;&nbsp;The main object of the present study is bifocal: to adumbrate the significant roles of Gertrude Stein and Sherwood Anderson in the specific historical phase of American literature and to define the central characteristics of their imagination in the light of national tradition as well as modernist perspectives. The rationale of the comparison is grounded in two simple facts of history plus and observation: that the two writers were devoted life-long friends reciprocating sympathy and admiration between them; that both of them, born in the 1870&quot;s, were a guiding influence on some of the most important literary moderns of the following generation notably including Faulkner and Hemingway; and that it would be meaningful to examine and define the common denominator that binds them together.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The discussion proceeds in the division of four parts. In Part One, lives of the two writers are selectively reviewed with an especial focus on the formation of literary minds, their own definition of self, the range of influence they exercised, and the issues of modernity in their achievements. The second and third parts concentrate on Stein and Anderson respectively. The discussion of Stein is focused on the significance of her experimental style which, starting mildly with the Flaubertian Three lives, could go, by way of prolific “steinese”, as far as to the extremes of Tender Buttons. The heart of her modernist gestures is Whitmanesque self-celebration, a turning back to the American tradition of innocence and acceptance.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Anderson is discussed with regards to his Lawrentian and Freudian vision as reflected in Winesburg, Ohio and Dark Laughter. He is modern in his rejection of repectable society and in his embrace of the conceptual frameworks of our century. But in his undoubting indulgence in the poetic vision, which is bought at the cost of realism, Anderson inherits the American tradition of the Edenic and democratic optimism by way of Twain and Whitman. The concluding fourth part considers the necessary distinction of American modernism, of which Stein and Anderson were progenitor and/or mentor, from the mainstream European modernism and its inherent nihilism. Here, aspects of such distinction as represented by these two writers, including colloquial easefulness in style, are seen as part of the afore-mentioned American literary heritage.