“新兴阶层”:论笛福小说中的“城市新人”

“The Emerging Class”: On “the New-man of the City” in Defoe's Novels

作为英国小说传统的源头,笛福的小说创作自然早已受到学术界的认真对待,研究成果也已汗牛充栋。然而,笛福生活在英国商业社会及城市化进程快速发展时期,其作品中有大量关于城市"新兴阶层"及其城市生活的描写。这一点似乎没有引起学界重视。本文试图借用城市理论及批判理论的相关资源,从另一个角度,即文学与城市的关系来考察笛福小说创作的历史价值,辨析笛福对新兴城市生活的复杂态度,阐发笛福城市小说中人物的多重含义。

As the forerunner of English novel,Defoe’s novels have been paid much attention to and there have been abundant achievement. However,Defoe lived in a period when England was on its course of rapid development of urbanization and commercialization. In his novels and other writings,there are a lot of urban narrative,which has been almost neglected by the academic world. The present essay intends to study the historical value of Defoe’s novels,from the perspective of city and literature.Through detailed analysis of Defoe’s novels from its relation to the newly emerging class in London,this essay advocates that Defoe holds an ambivalent attitude towards the "the new-man in the city"and his characters represent the new class in London and they have multiple implications.