목양신의 역사화, 탈역사화: 『대리석 목양신』을 중심으로 (The Historicization and Dehistoricization of Faun: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Marble Faun)

The Marble Faun: A Romance of Monte Beni, the romance produced by Hawthorne’s sojourn in Italy borrows the landscape of Italy to explore the dialectic of innocence and guilt, employing conventional notions of Italy as the ideal setting for an allegory of the Fall of Man. The emphasis on the Puritan moral drama obscures the place and time The Marble Faun purports to describe. It is only a little less successful in banishing politics from its pages. The tense political climate of Italy could not have completely escaped the notice of Nathaniel Hawthorne, even though the decisive battles of the national resurgence began in May 1859, the same month the Hawthornes left Italy. While the allegorical romance conveys a fantasy of stateless and apolitical subjectivity, its political unconscious suggests a radical unstable national narrative that both worries over the demise of the Unites States and endorses the imperial vision that will sustain it. At this particular moment of the 1850s, wedged between the territorial acquisitions and the impending Civil War, a work like The Marble Faun could hardly help but register more than its author was capable of speaking.
In Marble Faun, the antithetical figuration of Italy takes the human form of Donatello. The romance describes many transformations, but the one with the most serious repercussions is that of the “faun,” Donatello, from marble to man, from colonized subject in Rome to mature master of Monte Beni. The representation of Italians, and particularly of Donatello exemplifies recurrent features of colonist discourse. The romance begins by establishing Donatello’s identity with the marble Faun of Praxiteles, and proceeds to recount his coming to life. The breathing of life into the faun coincides with the taking of life: willed by Miriam’s eyes, Donatello throws her persecutor, the Model, from Tarpeian Rock. The model identified as Father Antonio after his death might signify the Church and, therefore, Donatello not only steps out of his faunhood into manhood, but also throws off the burden of the Church. The native, however, who rebels against his given identity must be banished from the society.
The safe return of two Americans, Hilda and Keynon to conservative domesticity in the United States signifies the absorption of the potential narratives of Italian nationalism and subaltern revolt into the implicit narrative of postcolonial nationhood. The young Americans escape from the turmoil of Italian resurgence to their homeland without contamination through the crime of Donatello and Miriam. Nevertheless, they might not find the America they have expected to see because America was not peaceful and quiet country anymore.

The Marble Faun: A Romance of Monte Beni, the romance produced by Hawthorne’s sojourn in Italy borrows the landscape of Italy to explore the dialectic of innocence and guilt, employing conventional notions of Italy as the ideal setting for an allegory of the Fall of Man. The emphasis on the Puritan moral drama obscures the place and time The Marble Faun purports to describe. It is only a little less successful in banishing politics from its pages. The tense political climate of Italy could not have completely escaped the notice of Nathaniel Hawthorne, even though the decisive battles of the national resurgence began in May 1859, the same month the Hawthornes left Italy. While the allegorical romance conveys a fantasy of stateless and apolitical subjectivity, its political unconscious suggests a radical unstable national narrative that both worries over the demise of the Unites States and endorses the imperial vision that will sustain it. At this particular moment of the 1850s, wedged between the territorial acquisitions and the impending Civil War, a work like The Marble Faun could hardly help but register more than its author was capable of speaking.
In Marble Faun, the antithetical figuration of Italy takes the human form of Donatello. The romance describes many transformations, but the one with the most serious repercussions is that of the “faun,” Donatello, from marble to man, from colonized subject in Rome to mature master of Monte Beni. The representation of Italians, and particularly of Donatello exemplifies recurrent features of colonist discourse. The romance begins by establishing Donatello’s identity with the marble Faun of Praxiteles, and proceeds to recount his coming to life. The breathing of life into the faun coincides with the taking of life: willed by Miriam’s eyes, Donatello throws her persecutor, the Model, from Tarpeian Rock. The model identified as Father Antonio after his death might signify the Church and, therefore, Donatello not only steps out of his faunhood into manhood, but also throws off the burden of the Church. The native, however, who rebels against his given identity must be banished from the society.
The safe return of two Americans, Hilda and Keynon to conservative domesticity in the United States signifies the absorption of the potential narratives of Italian nationalism and subaltern revolt into the implicit narrative of postcolonial nationhood. The young Americans escape from the turmoil of Italian resurgence to their homeland without contamination through the crime of Donatello and Miriam. Nevertheless, they might not find the America they have expected to see because America was not peaceful and quiet country anymore.