论晚清小说聚焦物与刻板形象呈现——以“眼镜”为例

On the Presentation of Focus Items and Stereotype Images in Late Qing Novels——Take“Glasses”as Example

晚清小说,尤其是谴责小说,其所聚焦的人物多有"刻板形象"特征。在对应形象的符号系统中,总能看到一些常规而抢眼的聚焦物,它们标识着社会集体对某类人群形象的偏见性预设。小说家经常利用这种预设,对聚焦物作艺术提炼与加工,以表达讽刺,甚至批判。"眼镜"就是典型的一例。在"旧式文人""府道官员""时髦人物"等形象中,对应的"老光眼镜""墨晶眼镜""金丝眼镜"经常作为主要聚焦物出现,无论静态形式(如服饰组成部分),还是动态形式(如场景中短时内显见的动作),都可见到作者借刻板形象符号来构造人物和表达思想的匠心。

Focus figures in late Qing novels,especially the condemnation novels,always have the characteristics of“stereotype image”.Among the symbol system corresponding to those images,there always have some ordinary but eye-catching items,which mark the prejudiced presupposition of social collective to the image of a certain group of figures.The novelists always take advantage of this presupposition,refining and processing the focus items artistically,to express irony or even criticism.And“glasses”is a typical example.The“reading glasses”,“dark glasses”and“gold-framework glasses”,separately corresponding to the images of“old style literati”,“feudal officials”and“fashionable figures”,are frequently presented in novels as the focus items.It would be obvious for readers to notice the novelists’ingenuity in constructing characters and expressing ideas through the stereotype image symbols,both in static form(such as a component of costume)and dynamic form(a momentary but visible action in the scene).