Aesthetic of Character Little Woman by Louisa May...

The focus of this seminar paper will be on a theoretical approach called aesthetic of character, with examples from a novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Various terms, coined up by theoreticians of this approach, will be explained through some of the examples taken out of the above mentioned novel. To begin with, this approach is concerned with what is the function of the characters in the narrative and how the characters are characterised. According to it, characters are agents performing actions in a story. They can be persons, anthropomorphised animals or objects. There are two main theoretical approaches within this one, and those are mimetic and semiotic approaches. While the mimetic approach considers characters as real†¦show more content†¦In contrast to this, we have another term called gender permutation, or when female performs actions in accordance with the prewritten male gender script, or shortly, female set in a male role. There is a milder version of thi s, described only as a deviation from prescribed gender norms while character retains its feminine identity. In the book, this can be seen through the character of Jo March. She is a fifteen-year old girl, who resents these gender roles. She feels uncomfortable in her own body, because it presents everything which prevents her from behaving in a way she wants. It is also called abjection, one form of the growing-up-grotesque archetype, which implies a girl’s feeling of aversion towards her own body as it matures. If she was a boy, nobody would care if she likes â€Å"boys games and work and mannersâ€Å"(Alcott: p. 9). On the contrary, it would be desirable. What is more, behaving in such way might be tolerable in very young age, but as one advances, such â€Å"romping ways† should stop. The result of this is a tomboy figure, whose behaviour interrogates the societal norms which force women into secondary and submissive role. As we could see from this short overview of the main theoretical premises of this approach, gender roles and stereotypes very much influenced the process of characterising agents in a story. Whether they are made as an exemplary models or interrogative models, they are portrayed according to theShow MoreRelatedThe Conflict between Personal Development and Social Expectations in Anne of Green Gables.2576 Words   |  11 Pagesmore apparent in culture and society. As a result, British story papers as Girl’s Own Paper started to circulate. This magazine for girls was founded in 1880 and canvassed the struggle between traditional domestic ideologies and the idea of the â€Å"new woman† (Paul 119). Claudia Nelson argues that by reading those magazines girls were expected to adopt virtues such as â€Å"purity, obedience, dependence, self-sacrifice and service† (141). However, they also encouraged girls to have â€Å"intelligence, self-respect