重读《艾凡赫》——一个“王权”的视角

Re-reading Ivanhoe:A Perspective of Kingship

司各特一向以创作苏格兰为背景与主题的历史小说而闻名,然而出版于1820年的《艾凡赫》却一反常态,以浪漫传奇的形式书写了中世纪英格兰本土撒克逊人与诺曼人的矛盾纷争。这一创作突兀转型的原因,以及作家本人的思想动机,迄今尚无定论。本文提出,《艾凡赫》是一部有关王权的小说,论及了中世纪王权之合法性来源以及实现王权公共性的手段等重要问题,回应了19世纪初英国王权在内忧外患中所面临的巨大危机,强化了作为"想象的共同体"的君主对消弭阶级矛盾、建构团结统一的民族国家所起到的重要意识形态作用,具有明确的现实指向与深刻的现实意义。

The novel Ivanhoe marks a crucial turn in Walter Scott's writing career,shifting from historical novels,whose backgrounds and themes are often set in Scotland,to a romance that relates mainly the conflicts between the Saxons and Normans in medieval England. The reasons for this sudden change,as well as the author's personal motivation,remain unknown till now. This essay argues that Ivanhoe is actually a novel on kingship. The novel discusses the source of legitimacy of medieval kingship and the approaches to achieve its publicity,responds to the major crisis of English kingship at the beginning of the nineteenth century,intensifies the function of the king,who is at the center of 'imagined community',and points out his ideological significance in dissolving class conflicts and establishing a unified and coherent nation. It is in this sense that this novel has a specific reference and attachment to the reality.