摘要
自《年轻的古德曼·布朗》发表以来,它的模糊性便受到了批评家们的广泛关注,但多年来,批评家们一直致力于挖掘这种模糊性的主题意义,很少有人从读者与历史的角度探索霍桑设计它的原因。笔者认为,我们如果将文学作品的审美特征置于具体的历史语境中加以解读,将不仅有利于加深我们对这些审美特征的理解,也可能会让我们对涉及到的作家、作品形成新的认识。因此,笔者主张从"文化修辞学"的角度重新考察《布朗》中的模糊性,将它联系19世纪文学市场的形态加以分析,以此揭示霍桑为平衡其作品的市场性与艺术性所做的努力,也让我们重新认识霍桑对于市场的野心。
The ambiguity of "Young Goodman Brown" has been a center of critical attention, ever since the publication of the story. Earlier critics, focusing mostly on the thematic implications of the ambiguity, rarely explored the reason why Hawthorne designed such an ambiguity in his particular historical milieu. I believe that situating aesthetic choices in specific historical contexts can help us gain a better understanding of both the choices themselves, and the works and authors under consideration. Using a "cultural rhetorical" approach, this article (re)examines the ambiguity in "Young Goodman Brown" in relationship with the conditions of the literary marketplace in Hawthome's time. I argue that the ambiguity serves a double purpose for Hawthorne: it allows the author to at once convey a transcendental vision of truth and to attract a stratified contemporary audience with varying literary tastes.
作者
李宛霖
Li Wanlin(Assistant Professor, Department of English, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University, Beijing, Chin)
出处
《外国文学》
CSSCI
北大核心
2017年第2期34-43,共10页
Foreign Literature