一个维多利亚绅士的进化之路——再论《法国中尉的女人》中的进化主题

The Evolution of a Victorian Gentleman:On the Evolutionary Theme in The French Lieutenant's Woman

作为"历史编撰元小说"的代表性作品之一,约翰·福尔斯的《法国中尉的女人》一书无疑体现了后现代历史想象所具有的实验性与颠覆性等特征,但与此同时,《法国中尉的女人》一书及其历史观照又建立在对维多利亚时代风貌逼真而精确的重现之上。本文正是基于这种双重性基础之上,聚焦于小说男主人公查尔斯·史密森的自我进化历程,分析福尔斯如何从当代视角对19世纪的进化主题进行重构,并将其置于存在主义语境中进行观照,从而揭示福尔斯笔下自由、自我与进化的真谛。

Seen as a typical historiographical metafiction, which blurs the boundary between fiction and history, The French Lieutenant＇s Woman, nevertheless, presents the Victorian past with a verisimilitude in details. This paper intends to focus on the self-evolution and spiritual pilgrimage of the protagonist Charles Smithson as a representative of the so-called Victorian gentleman, and explore how the novelist reconstructs the 19th-century evolutionary theme within a postmodern and existential context and reveals the true significance of self, freedom and evolution.