英语小说的形成与发展——评迈克尔·西米特的《小说传记》(英文)

Shaping the Development of the Novel in English: A Review of Michael Schmidt's The Novel: A Biography

作为文类之一的小说一直是西方文学界探讨的命题,但很少有学者像迈克尔·西米特那样纵横驰骋,将英语小说的形成与发展置于七个多世纪的绵延历史中加以考察,揭示其复杂而多变且具有全球意义的生命传记历程。本文拟简要分析和评述其新作《小说传记》的主要内容及其学术成就。

For centuries many literary scholars in the West have pursued to study the novel as a genre but few have done it successfully as Michael Schmidt does in his recent achievement The Novel： A Biography which tells the story of the novel＇s transformation through time. To show how significant the work is, this essay tries to sketch its framework and discuss some of the major views Schmidt holds towards the development of the novel in English.