维多利亚小说中的重婚叙事

Bigamy Narration in Victorian Novels

重婚叙事是维多利亚小说的高频叙事策略,涉及经典小说,常见于通俗小说,盛于惊悚小说,是19世纪英国殖民扩张及社会变革时期婚姻家庭状况的文学表征。重婚叙事在西方文学中有一定的渊源,主要呈现为“意外回归—确认重婚—激化矛盾”的叙事模式。维多利亚小说的重婚叙事在承继西方叙事传统的基础上,表现出“殖民回归”式的维多利亚时代特色,在描写有悖传统的婚姻乱象的表象下实现了善恶有报的伦理回归。

That most bigamy committers in the novels are destined to tragedy is a tribute to the ethical endorsement that evil is rewarded with evil although those novels tend to describe the chaotic situation overrun with immoral bigamies.The plot of bigamy pervades Victorian novels, both canonic and popular, especially sensation novels. Bigamy narration, with "unexpected return" as the typical mode, emanated from Greek mythology and is well used in folk literature like ballads. Victorian bigamy narration develops the classic mode into "colonial return" in token of the Victorian Age when England was undergoing the seismic social transformation and implementing the policy of colonial expansion.