Earticle

초록

영어

This study not only explores how the value of capitalism inexorably shapes the human mind and behavior, but also discusses the concept of “American manhood,” in relation to 19th-century American culture in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Business Man.” Also, this study is based on the theory of “means without end” suggested by Giorgio Agamben. “Means without end” concerns a life that cannot be separated from its form and erases any obligatory relationship to an end. As a consequence, an individual or thing becomes available for a new use. In “The Businessman,” the eccentric narrator is Peter Proffit in which “f” is intentionally inserted to emphasize his characteristics. Peter pursues profit without regard for justice and public values. Because he recognizes the gap between his own characteristics as a human being and as a businessman, he changes his business at any time to boost his profit. He consciously and boldly exists as pure agency or as a means to make profit without an end; he neither demonstrates any professional consciousness nor devotes his work to the culture of American manhood. In conclusion, Peter’s life takes the form of “means without end” in society: he does not give up his own qualities as a human being, but he just plays out getting a job and satirizes the undifferentiated end in society. Finally, he becomes the political subject who both exposes the violence that forces individuals to follow social norms and keeps an extreme situation, in which Peter exists as a “whatever” being with a true identity different from his social identity.

목차

I. 포우의 공포에 대한 다양한 해석
 II. 수동적 주체와 ‘목적 없는 수단’의 의미
 III. 능동적 주체와 ‘목적 없는 수단’의 가능성
 IV. 결론
 인용문헌
 Abstract

키워드

저자

• 장정윤 [ Jung Yoon Chang | 숙명여대 ]

참고문헌

발행기관

간행물

표지보기 관심저널 등록

• 간행물명

  미국소설 [마크 트웨인 리뷰]

• 간기

  연3회

• pISSN

  1738-5784

• 수록기간

  1991~2020

• 등재여부

  KCI 등재

• 십진분류

  KDC 843 DDC 813