Another Part of Whiteness: A New Culture Beyond Left and Right

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Lillian Hellman as a major American playwright, screenwriter, and memoirist has been called “the institution of conscience” or icon of conscience by her private actions and public statements on socio-political issues. She consistently made statements for conscience and actions for what she believes in her plays and her life against the ideology of Whiteness and pseudo-patriotism/McCarthyism. Her heroines/heroes are Hellman’s portrayals of what it means to live a “noble life” and the attitude of her life. In this paper, I analyze the roots of her social conscience and responsibility that reveal her identity. Hellman reports and remembers people who have dreamed of a better world and who have been physically and psychologically wounded.
Sara and Kurt Müller in Watch on the Rhine, the white heroine and hero as Hellman’s personae fight against whiteness. Through the analysis of the actions of Hellman’s personae, I discuss what fascism is and what is the identity of American/Americanism. The white author, Lillian Hellman’s heart is against whiteness, which is revealed in her life and written works. On the one hand, whiteness with color-coded multiple position has been used as a tool to analyze prejudice, discrimination, and obsession based on the conception of the color white and skin color. On the other hand, in socio-historical discourse, whiteness has been used with a similar meaning to the ideology of racism as a color-coded stratification in white dominated culture by the power of media and advertisers. Whiteness functions in culture and politics as being closely related to symbolized and racialized colors as an ideological trend. In her written works and life, Hellman stood against an oppressive institution of whiteness as an ideological trend.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 강관수, "헬만의 Days to Come에 나타나는 공동체의 붕괴와 대공황의 자유주의적 전유" 한국현대영미드라마학회 19 (19): 5-31, 2006

2 Hellman, Lillian, "Watch on the Rhine" World 1941

3 Lipsitz, George, "The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics" Temple UP 2006

4 Austenfeld, Thomas Carl, "The Moral Act: Lillian Hellman Fights Fascist in the Parlor, In American Women Writers and the Nazis: Ethics and Politics in Boyle, Porter, Stafford, and Hellman" UP of Virginia 85-106, 2001

5 Hellman, Lillian, "The Little Foxes" Dramatists 1939

6 Phillips, John, "The Art of the Theater I: Lillian Hellman – An Interview, In Conversation with Lillian Hellman" UP of Mississippi 53-72, 1986

7 Paxton, Robert O, "The Anatomy of Fascism" Knopf 2004

8 Hellman, Lillian, "Scoundrel Time" Little 1976

9 Hellman, Lillian, "Pentimento: A Book of Portraits" Little 1973

10 Lyons, Bonnie, "Lillian Hellman: ‘The First Jewish Nun Prytania Street.’, In Hester Street to Hollywood: The Jewish-American Stage and Screen" Indian UP 106-122, 1983

11 Rollyson, Carl, "Lillian Hellman: Her Legend and Her Legacy" St. Martin’s 1988

12 Cox, Oliver C, "Caste, Class, and Race: A Study in Social Dynamics. 1st ed" Doubleday 1948

13 Hellman, Lillian, "A Day in Spain" 297-298, 1938