费金形象被忽略的异质性:狄更斯《雾都孤儿》中的隐性叙事进程

The overlooked heterogeneity of the stereotyped Jewish image Fagin:covert progression in Dickens' Oliver Twist

狄更斯《雾都孤儿》中费金的红胡子、红头发、红眉毛、犹太长袍、违法营生等典型特征,与英国文学中犹太形象的传统俗套一脉相承,是批评界长期关注的重点,而费金形象背后的异质性却为以往的研究所忽略。借助"隐性进程"的研究视角,挖掘小说显性情节冲突背后隐藏的"隐性叙事"——有关费金宗教、饮食方面的异质性叙事暗流,与以犹太恶棍形象为主导的情节发展相互排斥,与小说中的基督教济贫院叙事相互对照,从中可以发现狄更斯对于维多利亚社会基督教价值观的讽刺与批判,有助于更好地理解该经典作品深刻的主题意义。小说中费金的犹太性,与其说是狄更斯刻意迎合读者的种族偏见,不如说是狄更斯利用了这种集体偏见反讽了自诩道德的基督教社会的自负与虚伪。

Dickens’s presentation of Fagin in Oliver Twist remains a major source of controversy about his attitude to Jews among critics,as the distinctive characteristics of Fagin’s red beard and eyebrows,red hair,and his Jewish flannel gown together with his illegal business,are in line with the traditional stereotypes of the Jewish image in English literature. However,Fagin’s heterogeneity has been overlooked by previous research. This study,from "covert progression"theory perspective,uncovers the hidden "covert narrative"of Oliver Twist behind its overt plot conflicts. It finds that the covert narrative movement concerning Fagin’s heterogeneity in terms of his religion and diet,contradicts the plot development centering on his Jewish villainous image,and contrasts with the overt narrative on the Christian workhouse. The uncovering of this covert narrative progression throughout the text reveals Dickens’s irony and criticism of the Christian values of Victorian society and better suggests the thematic import of this classic work. Fagin’s Jewishness in the novel can be found not so much that Dickens deliberately catered to his readers’ prejudices,but that he exploited the stereotype to jolt the self-proclaimed Victorian Christian world out of their complacency and hypocrisy.