근대소설에서 여성 방물장수는 일제 식민 통치와 가부장제의 억압을 받은 대표적인 타자로 표상된다. 영세한 방물장수는 범죄 유혹에 쉽게 넘어가거나, 은밀한 성생활을 중개한 대가를 받아 생활하였다. 방물장수는 일반 여성에게 화장품을 판매하면서 근대적 미를 전파하고, 근대 소비문화의 창출에 관여하였다. 개방과 자유라는 직업적 특성을 지닌 방물장수는 폐쇄된 삶을 살아가는 사람들의 소식통이자 정보통으로 기능하였다. 방물장수는 사회의 냉대와 천시에도 불구하고 경제적 주체로 서기 위해 육체의 한계를 극복하고 삶의 의지를 최대로 발현하였던 하층민 여성의 전형이었다.

The study on female representation in modern novel was focused on modern girl, female factory worker, gisaeng, cafe waitress, maid. Although female hawkers were common person, they were neglected in the study on female characters. For viewing the variety of modern female representation, we need to turn our eyes to marginal females. Hawkers didn``t labor based on modern contract relation like female factory workers. The motive of choosing one``s profession as a hawker was not a self development or an enlightened consciousness but a maintenance of livelihood. Hawkers easily fell into temptation of crimes because of low income, they got paid for mediation of sex life. Hawkers spread modern beauty to general women by buying modern goods(especially female cosmetics), and they created modern consumption culture. They were active as informed sources for closed persons. Hawkers in modern novel had negative image. But they were the model of lower-class women that manifested the will to live to the maximum in spite of poor treatment and contempt. Not only hawkers adopt themselves to the control order, but also expressed antipathy to the mechanism of discrimination and exclusion. Female hawker in modern novel was represented as a typical other that lived under repression of Japanese colonial rule and a patriarchal system.