文化焦虑与《夺发记》中的两个祭坛(英文)

Cultural Anxiety and the Two Altars in The Rape of the Lock

在许多批评家看来,蒲柏的《夺发记》反映了蒲柏时代的英国文化,但他们多关注诗歌中的"次要因素",而本文则试图揭示,英国 18 世纪对于奢靡消费主义的文化忧虑并非出于对铺张奢侈的生活方式的忧虑,而是与当时英国两种普遍的观念密切相关,即英国受制于法国文化、英法之间贸易不平等。本文通过聚焦于作品中男爵和贝琳达各自的祭坛,重点分析了两个祭坛分别代表法、英两国的象征意义,认为蒲柏运用这两个祭坛讽刺性地反映了 18 世纪初期英法之间的文化对峙和英国的文化焦虑。

Though Alexander Pope＇s The Rape of the Lock has been studied by numerous critics as a poem representing the culture of Pope＇s time, their attention has been focused primarily on the trivial things in the poem. However, this essay suggests that the cultural apprehension about luxurious consumerism in eighteenth-century Britain was not merely about an extravagant and luxurious way of life; rather, this apprehension was closely related to the common perceptions that Britain was being encroached by French culture and that the trade between the two countries was unbalanced. Considering the significance of the altars of Belinda and the Baron in Pope＇s The Rape of the Lock, this essay argues that the poem satirically reflects the cultural anxieties of early eighteenth-century Britain. This essay shows how the two altars in the poem can be seen as representing Britain and France, which Pope uses to reveal the cultural tensions between the two countries and the cultural anxiety on the part of Britain.