샬롯 퍼킨스 길먼: 사회를 치료하는 여성 작가/의사

Abstract

This paper aims to argue that an act of writing, for Charlotte PerkinsGilman, becomes a medium of political intervention into social reform aswell as a kind of therapeutic process not only for healing herself but alsofor affecting the fate of other women of her time. It is well known that Dr. Mitchell who treated Gilman with ‘rest cure’ supposedly changed histreatment after reading “The Yellow-Wallpaper.” This anecdote shows howGilman's writing served as a kind of medical treatment of a woman doctor,which influenced other fellow doctors. By analyzing her short stories suchas “The Yellow Wall-paper,” “Dr. Clair’s Place,” “Old Water,” “Making aChange,” “Beewise,” and “If I Were a Man,” and a poem “To the YoungWife,” this paper examines Gilman’s attempt to rectify the typical imagesof feminine women and to provide alternative images of healthy women,and by extension, a healthy society. Proposing a new paradigm for health,Gilman as woman writer/doctor becomes an active social reformer whoenvisions a feminist utopia.

This paper aims to argue that an act of writing, for Charlotte Perkins Gilman, becomes a medium of political intervention into social reform as well as a kind of therapeutic process not only for healing herself but also for affecting the fate of other women of her time. It is well known that Dr. Mitchell who treated Gilman with ‘rest cure’ supposedly changed histreatment after reading “The Yellow-Wallpaper.” This anecdote shows howGilman's writing served as a kind of medical treatment of a woman doctor,which influenced other fellow doctors. By analyzing her short stories such as “The Yellow Wall-paper,” “Dr. Clair’s Place,” “Old Water,” “Making a Change,” “Beewise,” and “If I Were a Man,” and a poem “To the YoungWife,” this paper examines Gilman’s attempt to rectify the typical images of feminine women and to provide alternative images of healthy women,and by extension, a healthy society. Proposing a new paradigm for health,Gilman as woman writer/doctor becomes an active social reformer who envisions a feminist utopia.