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A Study of Linda’s Femininity and Maternity in Death of a Salesman through Levinasian Notions of Femininity and Maternity

  • Journal of Modern English Drama
  • Abbr : JMBARD
  • 2017, 30(2), pp.243-261
  • Publisher : 한국현대영미드라마학회
  • Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Literature > Contemporary English Drama

Yoon, Hee Oyck 1

1영남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In this play Willy’s American dream through masculine mythos is self-destructive in pursuit of the forgetfulness and the subjugation of others. This play has been dealt with from masculine, patriarchal point of view in which women have always been considered marginal figures. The feminine figures have been criticized as passive characters who have no positive role in fulfilling masculine American dream. They have been interpreted not as a separate entity but as men’s auxiliary being. This paper refutes the argument that in American male-dominated society, Linda is a pathetic, helpless, and passive being. According to Emmanuel Levinas, a woman who does not attempt to conquer abominates a man’s conquering and virile attitude to marginalize and eliminate the other. Levinas’s definition of femininity as pitted against the virility of mastery, domination, and appropriation opens the way to the new interpretation of the female as a different mode of existence. This feminine way of being is a slipping away from subjectivity. As Levinas defines maternity as the ultimate meaning of the feminine, this paper aims to delve into Linda's maternity which suffers for the other, that is, the maternal body as passivity and withdrawal against the world of Willy’s conatus.

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