권태와 호기심 사이: 『크랜포드』 속 작은 제국

Abstract

This paper examines how Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford establishes a small empire of single women, widows, and old ladies by resummoning men who have internalized boredom caused by their failed adventures in English colonies and giving them the role of satisfying their fantasies about distant parts of the Empire. By referring to Jeffrey Auerbach’s Imperial Boredom: Monotony and the British Empire to contextualize Cranford’s historical consciousness, I argue that Cranford restructures the relationship between gender and boredom that pervaded the British Empire. Masculinity is recharged and reenergized when retired men including Peter and Signor Brunoni assume the role of supplying adventurous narratives for women in the parlor at Cranford. The women, in turn, take the initiative of encouraging the men to control the tone of their narratives according to the women’s curiosity and particular demands. Although Cranford distorts the adventurous narratives of the British Empire through its feminine ways, it works within the same historical context as the Empire.