中英觐礼插曲对《曼斯菲尔德庄园》主题的升华

Macartney Embassy to China and Theme Sublimation of Mansfield Park

奥斯丁在《曼斯菲尔德庄园》里通过马戛尔尼访华事件的插入以及芬妮与马戛尔尼爵士的认同,不仅间接表明了自己对于中英觐礼冲突的看法,也暗示了英国的道德礼仪对于海外殖民扩张的依赖。如此一来,当东西方两种不同的道德礼仪相遇时,冲突也就在所难免,但原因不在于两种不同的文明体制,而是因为一方的道德礼仪是基于另一方的"他者"身份来建构的。奥斯丁小说中一贯讨论的"礼仪"主题因为中英觐礼插曲的铺陈而得到了进一步的升华。

By inserting the Event of Macartney Embassy to China in Mansfield Park and identifying Fenny with Earl Macartney, Jane Austen not only expresses her own attitude towards the etiquette conflict between Britain and China in the last decade of 18th century, but also indicates the dependence of British etiquette on its overseas colonization. Accordingly, once the two different etiquettes encounter, the conflict can hardly be avoided. However, the reason is not due to the two different civilization system, but to the fact that British etiquette has seen the eastern as ＂the other＂. As a result, the etiquette theme of Austen＇s novels has been sublimated by the insertion of the Event of Macartney Embassy to China.