조이스 캐럴 오츠의 『그들』

• 영문명: Joyce Carol Oates’s them : A Chronicle of American Life for Survival
• 발행기관: 한국영미어문학회
• 저자명: 장경순(Kyong-Soon Chang)
• 간행물 정보: 『영미어문학』영미어문학 제135호, 53~73쪽, 전체 21쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2019.12.30

영문 초록

This study explores how the Wendalls, the poor working-class family based in Detroit, struggle just to survive in their own way from the 1930s to the 1960s in them(1969) by Joyce Carol Oates. Oates delves into the lives of the Wendalls in them. This text is a panoramic chronicle of the working-class American family and individual family members in the tough city of Detroit make strenuous efforts to survive. The desire for the Wendalls to keep living is linked to the intense, fundamental forces of existence itself. And the desire for life shows the power to persevere generation after generation without exhaustion. Strong vitality, in particular, operates as a source of survival, and offers starkly a fundamental and natural look to carry on their existence in the American city. The main characters featured in them with naturalistic characteristics are Loretta, Maureen, and Jules, among the Wendalls. The concept of “conatus” by Benedict de Spinoza is useful to explain how Loretta, Jules and Maureen struggle for their survival in the violent and lively American metropolis slum, and what the basis of their desire to survive is. Spinoza argues that it is human nature and therefore good to have a desire to strive to survive and “persevere in one s being.” I also explore how Loretta, Maureen, and Jules try to survive through generations, remaining faithful to “conatus” in their respective ways.

키워드

조이스 캐럴 오츠 『그들』 생존 미국적 삶 코나투스 욕망 폭력 인간본성 Joyce Carol Oates them survival American life conatus desire violence human nature