서강대학교

초록/요약

In this thesis, I read Charlotte Brontë’s novel as a nomadic narrative. Through Rosi Braidotti’s concept of nomadic theory, to obtain nomadic subjectivity is not merely to deconstruct past identities, but to relocate identities on new grounds such as gender, class, race, ethnicity, thus not being bound to one identity. The nomadic subject desires an intersection of different identities by deconstructing their socially minor position, but not to see it as a limitation, which further allows their development of character. Borrowing this idea of nomadic consciousness, I apply this term to my notion of nomadic narrative. Nomadic narrative is when characters themselves have nomadic consciousness to construct their own narrative and when the focus of the narrative is on various socially minor characters and on the relationship between including bios (humans) and zoe (non-humans). The narrative advocates a posthumanist environment because it treats the bios and zoe on an equal level by transgressing national, gender, and religious boundaries. By crossing these borders in a posthuman environment, my analysis forms a posthumanist cosmopolitan perspective. Moreover, I analyze Villette, Labassecour as a literal space where posthumanist cosmopolitanism is possible, creating a narrative space for the ecological understanding of the relationship between bios and zoe. Furthermore, to develop my nomadic reading of Villette, I use detachment to reflect upon past flawed notions of modern western humanism, use nomadic subjectivity to fragment and redefine the “human,” itself, allowing multiple recreations of one’s self. Lastly, I use posthuman theory and the gothic to destabilize the human and non-human, opening up a literal space and environment for nomadic subjects of bios and zoe to co-exist within Labassecour.