从对《曼斯菲尔德庄园》的贬责看简·奥斯汀的辩证小说艺术

The Negative Criticism of Mansfield Park and Jane Austen's Dialectical Art of Fiction

英国著名小说家简.奥斯汀的中期作品《曼斯菲尔德庄园》一直饱受争议,众多资深奥斯汀批评家认为这部小说是作者的一次失败的转型试验。批评的焦点是故事中的女主人公范妮.普赖斯,许多人认为这个人物的塑造过于简单化和道德化,其结果是说教性超过艺术性。但是,细读文本证明奥斯汀并未改变她的艺术风格,而范妮这个中心人物的辨识能力和判断能力,是在其生活的时间和空间中经历多次反复后才逐步提高的。事实上,这部小说显示了奥斯汀在辩证小说艺术的追求上达到了新的高度。

Mansfield Park is a middle work by Jane Austen,the well known British novelist.For a long time the novel has been the source of heated debates among the Austen critics,with most claiming that the work represents a failed attempt of hers at a breakthrough in subject and style.The negative criticism is focused on Fanny Price,the heroine in the novel.Many critics assert that the characterization of Fanny is informed by excessive moral concern,that the sheer simplicity allows instruction to overwhelm art.However,close reading of the text confirms that Austen did not change her literary style,that Fanny's ability to discern and judge was cultivated over time and in space,with the usual ups and downs.In fact this novel marks a higher level of Austen's dialectical art of fiction.