斯宾塞《仙后》中的美洲物产与殖民经济话语

American Merchandise and the Discourse of Colonial Economy in Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene

斯宾塞的史诗《仙后》设计了一个虚构的地理空间,然而诗歌的空间讽喻呈现却使其具有坚实的现实地理指涉性,其中的黄金、烟草、愈疮木等美洲物产传递出鲜明的新世界经济地理信息。斯宾塞的叙事显示黄金能增加宗主国的国民财富,海外植物能满足国内的消费和医疗需求,但是,对黄金的迷恋冲击着中世纪以降的基督教经济伦理观,消费海外奢侈物会导致英格兰财富流向西班牙,海外探险可能引发疾病跨地区传播。黄金、烟草、愈疮木涉及重商主义、消费经济、疾病经济等与海外拓殖相关的经济话题。《仙后》对殖民物产的含混、甚至矛盾的叙事方式揭示了殖民者既想消费殖民物产,又力图构建自身道德优势的殖民行为。

Although Edmund Spenser devises a fictitious geographic space in his epic,The Faerie Queene,the allegorical representation of the place delivers an authentic reference to the geography in reality,a place where such American products as gold,tobacco,and guaiacum convey the clear information about the economy and geography in the New World.Spenser’s narrative demonstrates that gold can increase the national wealth of the suzerain,whereas plants and herbs can satisfy its domestic consumption and meet its medical demands,but the obsession with gold impinges upon the Christian economic ethics during the Medieval period,the consumption of luxuries from overseas could cause a quick flow of the English wealth to Spain,and overseas exploration might trigger a spread of diseases across continents.Gold,tobacco,and guaiacum involve some economic issues related to mercantilism,consumer economy,and disease economy.The ambiguous and even contradictory narrative about the colonial merchandise reveals the colonial conduct of the colonizers who not only wish to consume colonial merchandise,but also attempt to establish their own moral superiority at the same time.