서부소설에 투영된 칼라일의 도덕적 영웅: 『버지니아인』의 카우보이 영웅론

Abstract

This study examines how Thomas Carlyle’s hero-worship and his philosophy of clothes are reflected in the characterization of a nameless cowboy hero in Owen Wister’s The Virginian. Denying religious formality and perfunctory lifestyles in the Victorian age, Carlyle stresses respecting heroes and cultivating spiritual refinement. Although his transcendentalism appealed to nineteenth-century Americans, his pro-slavery and anti-democracy on the basis of meritocratic hierarchy caused some heated social controversies in the northern and southern states. For this reason, Carlylean ideas provide a useful reference point to comprehend the delivery of contending dual messages in the novel. Concretely, the moral hero who inherited traditional American values shows an imaginary reconciliation of class, gender, and racial conflicts; conservative elites would regard him as restating law and order in the American West, while the advocates of mass democracy might think that anyone got a chance to be a hero on condition that he or she successfully cultivated moral integrity.