《坎特伯雷故事》的空间批评

A Spatial Criticism of The Canterbury Tales

《坎特伯雷故事》手稿的编订通常沿用了埃尔斯梅尔抄本的序列。这个序列可以看出《坎特伯雷故事》结构空间的开放性。如梅尔言,是不是乔叟搭建框架之初,就没有打算把它写完?或者乔叟宁可要一卷五花八门、数量无定的故事,也懒得去完成哪个秩序有定的恢宏构架?而且,"总引"中那一群精力充沛的朝圣者说书人,和千奇百怪却秩序有定呼应着讲故事者身份的故事,足以登上前台而令作品总体主题和结构空间相形失色。我们发现从伦敦泰巴客店去向坎特伯雷的这一群朝圣客,都有一种自觉的空间意识,对于自己在14世纪英国这张社会地图中的位置了然于心。了然于心而不图谋越轨,这是乔叟式温和讽刺风格形成的空间背景。

The editions of Canterbury Tales today usually follow the sequence in Ellsmere MS which indicates an open ending of the its structural space.As Ellsmere suggests,is it true that Chaucer never plan a definite ending even at the very beginning of his composition of the Tales?Or he prefers a variety of tales instead of a grand and well-ordered structure?The vigorous pilgrimages in the“General Prologue”together with their all sorts of bizarre stories in a cognitive mapping are too strong to make the theme and structure or the Tales significant.There is a self-aware spatial conscience for all of the characters in the pilgrimage which in turn,enhances their confidence for their own social positions.Being self-aware yet never trying to transgress,that is the spatial background helped to constitute the famous Chaucerian estate satire.