The Great American Grouch - D.H. Lawrence

[석수]

위대한 미국인의 심술(쟁이)

위대한 미국인의 심술증


grouch

명사(비격식)
1.불평이 많은 사람
2.(하찮은 것에 대한) 불평


'Grouch'는 투덜이, 심술쟁이, 불평꾼을 뜻하며, 명사로는 그런 성격의 사람을, 동사로는 투덜거리다, 불평하다라는 의미로 사용됩니다.

특히, 쓰레기통에 사는 캐릭터인 '오스카 더 그라우치(Oscar the Grouch)'로 유명해지면서 고유명사처럼 쓰이기도 하고, 형용사 'grouchy'는 '짜증내는, 심술궂은'이라는 뜻으로 'moody'보다 더 강한 뉘앙스를 가집니다.

예시:

명사: "He's a real grouch." (그는 정말 심술궂은 사람이야.)

동사: "Quit grouching and help me!" (투덜대지 말고 나 좀 도와줘!)

형용사: "She's always grouchy in the morning." (그녀는 아침마다 항상 짜증을 내.)


"The Great American Grouch" is a phrase D.H. Lawrence used repeatedly in his literary critique, Studies in Classic American Literature, to describe a deep-seated inner malaise and restlessness he perceived in the American character and its writers, particularly James Fenimore Cooper.

Concept of the Grouch

Lawrence used the term "grouch" to describe an inner disquiet or "inner malaise which amounts almost to madness" in the American soul. This feeling, he argued, stems from the unappeased spirits and "demon" of the aboriginal continent that the white settlers suppressed and never truly integrated with. Instead of honestly confronting this new, wild reality, Americans, in Lawrence's view, developed a rigid, moralistic, and often hypocritical outer persona.

Application to Fenimore Cooper

In Chapter 5 of his book, Lawrence focuses on the author James Fenimore Cooper as a prime example of this phenomenon. Lawrence suggests that Cooper was a "gentleman, in the worst sense of the word" in his outward life, carefully curating a sophisticated image in European high society.

However, Lawrence argues that the "great national Grouch was grinding inside him". While Cooper's conscious mind desired the refinement of aristocracy, his subconscious yearned for the "crude, belching lifestyle of the Frontier". Lawrence claims that Cooper's true, inner self was the rugged frontiersman Natty Bumppo (Deerslayer) from The Leatherstocking Series, a character who disappears "lonely and severed, into the forest, away, away from his race".

Lawrence's famous dictum "Never trust the artist. Trust the tale" encapsulates his approach: he believed that an artist's fiction reveals the truth of their inner life and the national character, often in contradiction to their conscious intentions or public persona.

You can read Lawrence's full chapter on Cooper in Studies in Classic American Literature on Wikisource or find the entire book available through Project Gutenberg.