批判与救赎:《艰难时世》的异质空间书写

Criticism and Salvation: Construction of "Heterotopias" in Hard Times

《艰难时世》是19世纪英国生态文学的代表作品。狄更斯在其中有意识地将异质空间书写作为生态表意的重要手段,一方面通过虚构生态恶托邦"焦煤镇"对工业文明和功利主义进行富有预见性的批判,另一方面通过创造与焦煤镇恶托邦并置抗衡的异质空间"史里锐马戏团"探索精神救赎的可能。解读作品的异质空间叙事手法,不仅有利于深化对作品社会批判性的理解,更重要的是能够揭示作品作为生态文学文本的核心价值,从而在生态文学发展进程的层面上为理解狄更斯这名伟大作家的先进性与前瞻性提供启示。

Hard Times is a representative work of English eco-literature of the 19th century."Heterotopia" is adopted by Dickens as a deliberate means to give ecological implications. On the one hand, Coketown is fabricated as an ecological dystopia to make prescient criticism on industrialism and utilitarianism. On the other hand, Sleary’s Circus is created as an adversarial parallel of Coketown to explore spiritual salvation. Elaborating the "heterotopias" in Hard Times, while extending the social critical dimension of the novel, reveals the substantial significance of it as a work of eco-literature. In view of the development of eco-literature, the elaboration provides enlightenment for understanding the innovation and prescience of the author’s writing.