Study on Transforming Female Sense and Taste in the Long-Eighteenth-Century Dramas and Their Relationships to Sensibility

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K02455
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Yamagata Prefectural University of Health Science
• Principal Investigator: Kaji Riwako 山形県立保健医療大学, 保健医療学部, 准教授 (60299790)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 感受性 / センス / テイスト / 身体性 / 精神性 / 消費文化 / モラル / ジェンダー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study reconsidered the recent studies of sensibilities by examining how the representation of female sense and taste were transformed in the long-eighteenth-century dramas. Meanings or indications of sense and taste were diversified onstage and their semantic contents shifted; Sense signified not only bodily senses but mental capacity or good judgment, and taste deemed primarily from gustatory sense or enjoyment of sexual pleasure to discernment or appreciation of beauty. Through connecting sensual female bodies displayed on the Restoration stage to female sensibilities presented in the later-eighteenth-century dramatic works, the relationships between [un]eroticized body and [un]sensual mind were illustrated, as well as their relations to sensibility not attributed only to sexual desire. Meanwhile, importance of associations was clarified between formulation of sensibility and international politics, the advent of globalized consumption culture or civil society.

Free Research Field

英米文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究成果の意義は、(1) 感受性の形成にかかわる肉体と精神の問題について、多様な女性表象の再考に基づく身体性の再定義、(2) センスとテイストの意味の生成・変化の分析による、身体性と精神性との関係性の見直し、(3) 公共圏／親密圏／私的空間における女性の役割を再配分することによる、感受性がその場で果たした役割の再確認、の3点である。このように長い18世紀における女性の肉体と精神という観点から、感受性の形成過程を検証することで、ジェンダー研究、市民社会・国家（形成）の問題とも密接に結びつくと考えている。