한 시대의 종말을 상징하는 등장인물들의 이름: 윌라 캐더의 ｢아프로디테가 온다!｣

Abstract

Willa Cather’s “Coming, Aphrodite!” is a noteworthy work since it contains several issues not easily found in her representative works such as My Antonia, O, Pioneers!, and The Song of the Lark. Published in 1920, “Coming, Aphrodite!” presents a female named Eden Bower, who in many ways violates the given code of conduct of her time and makes her dream come true to be one of the leading opera singers. Her short affair with Don Hedger, a kind of avant garde painter, discloses the conflicts between the old and the new values in individuals and in art. For her intention, Cather uses the names of the characters to suggest the death of an old era and the beginning of a new one. Hedger signifies the barrier and denial, while Eden is a sign for the happiness and death at the same time. Also, the goddess Aphrodite contains the image of death in her name. Don Hedger dedicates himself wholly to the art and thus isolates himself from the public life and concerns, while Eden Bower aspires worldly success and much attention from the public and even enables to commodify herself for that purpose. Their different opinions on art and success finally break them apart. Hedger’s decision to adapt himself to Eden’s demands indicates not only his change of attitudes but also, in a broader perspective, the gradual disappearing of the traditional art style in the face of the new. In this short story, Cather depicts the waning of the old and traditional world, not in nostalgic but in rather disinterested ways.