从城市到乡村:本·琼生城市喜剧和乡村庄园诗中的共同体想象

From the City to the Country:Community Imagination in Ben Jonson's City Comedies and Country House Poems

英国文学有着历史悠久的共同体书写传统。不同文学家书写共同体的形式各不相同,这在社会观念转型时期尤为明显。文艺复兴时代,英国正处于从中世纪农业文明向现代城市文明转型的重要阶段,剧作家本·琼生从城市与乡村两个维度围绕转型中的英国展开了共同体想象。他在城市喜剧中虚构了一个反讽的城市共同体,批评了彼时现实共同体分崩离析的状况,随后在乡村庄园诗中延续了对城市共同体的批评,并虚构了以庄园主美德为基础的乡村庄园共同体,缓解了转型时期的阶级冲突和市民身份焦虑,为早期现代英国国家转型提供了古典神话式的解决方案。

There is a long-standing tradition of community writing in English literature.Writers are particularly active in imagining diversified communities in the transitional period.During the Renaissance transitional period from medieval rural to modern urban civilization,the playwright Ben Jonson,feigns communities differently from the perspectives of city and country.In his city comedies,Ben Jonson imagines realistically an ironic city community,criticizing the split of real community.In his country house poetry,Ben Jonson continues to criticize the split city community and fictionalizes a friendly community of country house by eulogizing the host's hospitality,easing the class conflicts and identity anxieties of the transition period,and providing a classical mythological solution for the early modern transformation of England.