摘要
本文试图说明,在亨利·詹姆斯的《华盛顿广场》中,佩尼门夫人体现了奥斯卡·王尔德“生活模仿艺术”的主张,而“生活模仿艺术”导致了自我与现实的脱离和以自我为中心,忽略他人。论文同时指出,生活模仿艺术的现象也出现在詹姆斯《女士画像》、《专使们》等小说之中,说明詹姆斯对这一颠倒的艺术与生活的关系及其后果的关注。
This essay aims to show that Mrs. Penniman in Henry James' s Washington Square embodies Oscar Wilde' s aesthetic assertion that Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life, and that her imitation of art in life results in the isolation of self from reality and a self - centered ego that neglects the others. Demonstrating that characters like Isabel in The Portrait of a Lady and Stretcher in The Ambassadors are also tainted with the aesthetic propensity, the essay also shows how James is concerned with the inverted relationship between art and life and its significance.
