从小说《信号员》看维多利亚时代的技术文化

Technological Culture of Victorian Era A discussion based on Charles Dickens The Signalman

维多利亚时代是一个英国的"黄金时代",社会生活的各个方面都取得了辉煌的成就,而成就的取得很大程度上依赖于高度发达的技术。可以说,技术是这个时代的核心议题之一。但是,在这个时代,技术不仅是一种外在性的现象,也是一种内在性的文化。本文以维多利亚时代铁路大发展作为背景,通过解读狄更斯的短篇小说《信号员》,从技术社会史的视角展开对这种技术文化的分析。作者认为技术在维多利亚时代呈现了高度不确定性,而这种不确定性渗透到了人的内心深处。与此同时,在这个社会中成长起来的技术文化又反过来推动了整个社会的变革。

The Victorian era is the ＂Golden Time＂ of Britain, making a number of brilliant achievements in various aspects of social life. The fact is that these achievements largely rely on highly-developed technology. Consequently, technology should be one of the core issues in Victorian era. However, in the era, technology is not only a kind of extrinsic phenomenon, but also a kind of inherent culture. The article makes the great development of railway in Britain as the background and then shows the technological culture from the perspective of social history of technology by interpreting the short story ＂The Signalman＂ written by Charles Dickens. The conclusion is that technology in Victorian era has high uncertainty while this kind of uncertainty is deeply penetrated into men＇s minds. Meanwhile, this technological culture growing in Victorian era promotes social changes of Britain in return Technological culture can be a significant approach to view the Victorian era.