처녀(지) 겁탈 그리고 제국주의

The Rape of the Virgin (Land) and Imperialism: Re-Reading Hardy’s Tess

This study aims to transcend the limitations of ahistorical/apolitical criticism exerted on Hardy’s Tess and reinterpret the text anew from the historical and political perspectives. In particular, I will reread Tess’s rape in the context of imperialism. This rereading might sound illogical because both the criminal and the victim of this rape are white. However, considering the subalternity Tess is yoked to as a female, pagan peasant, it is more than probable to read Alec’s rape of Tess as an allegory of colonization. Tess described as “pure and chaste” along with the stereotype of the so-called “angel in the house” can function as a trope for the virgin land of colonies. The text Tess introduces Angel as a colonizer with an ambition to cultivate the virgin land whether America or Australia. Angel’s pity and sympathy for Tess can be interpreted as a pretext for justifying colonization as his plan to emigrate to Brazil represents. Moreover, Alec, transformed from a sexual rapist into a religious converter, reveals duplicity of religion providing indulgencies to colonial penetrations. Tess’s murder of Alec represents the resistance of the subaltern who dispenses justice in spite of violences of master narratives such as religion and politics. However, the last scene in which Tess falls asleep on the altar reinscribes the fact that the subaltern or the indigenous cannot but be made into victims of religion, imperialism, and even nationalism.