Servants and Illiteracy in Thomas Hardy’s “On the Western Circuit” and Ruth Rendell’s A Judgement in Stone

• 발행기관: 한국영미어문학회
• 저자명: Matthew Herzog
• 간행물 정보: 『영미어문학』제154호, 165~188쪽, 전체 24쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2024.09.30

국문 초록

This article analyzes the figure of the illiterate servant in Thomas Hardy’s short story “On the Western Circuit” and Ruth Rendell’s novel A Judgement in Stone. I argue that both works displace the class antagonisms of domestic labor into the realm of cultural antagonisms via the issue of illiteracy. Drawing on Raymond Williams’ conception of literacy as a totality of historical writing practices, I problematize Hardy’s and Rendell’s criticisms of the upper-classes in their fictions and how these only end up reinscribing cultural differences in terms of liberal politics as well as occluding the foundational relationship at the core of these stories: the labor of the servant for their master.

목차

1. Introduction

2. Literacy, Literature, and Literary Critics

3. Thomas Hardy and “On the Western Circuit”

4. Ruth Rendell and A Judgement in Stone

5. Conclusion

Works Cited

키워드

Thomas Hardy Ruth Rendell servants illiteracy Raymond Williams