十九世纪英国小说中的遗产书写

Legacy Writing in the Nineteenth-Century English Novels

十九世纪随着工商资本主义的进程,英国原有的社会结构日趋解体,传统价值观受到挑战,中产阶级势力逐渐壮大,贵族势力日渐式微,财富成为衡量社会地位和人生成败的价值尺度。遗产继承是改变人们社会身份和地位的重要契机,由此演绎出一系列遗产纷争与爱情阴谋。作为具有时代烙印的社会现象,遗产继承成为十九世纪英国现实主义文学的重要主题,从奥斯汀到哈代跨越整个世纪。从历时性角度分析,遗产态度经历了从世纪初温馨现实主义的听任命运被动接受,到中期批判现实主义的主动争取,再到中后期惊悚小说的不择手段的变化,揭示出十九世纪人们财富观念和遗产态度的流变。

In the 19th century,under the impact of social transformation,economic power became the decisive factor in defining social standing and identity,which aroused a strong sense of legacy among people.Legacy inheritance as the big concern in society entered English literature of realism,which experienced three stages from passive acceptance of fate,active struggle and even irrational scheme for legacy,reflecting the chronological change in people’s attitude towards legacy and inheritance,in accordance with the three nineteenth-century literary trends--mild realism in the early period,critic realism in the middle period and the sensation novel in the relatively later.