从绿色柴薪到黑钻石——《弗洛斯河上的磨坊》中的能源转型叙事

乔治·艾略特所关注的社会时期是处于农业文明到工业文明的过渡时期,也是由能源转型引发的从前现代社会向现代社会的转型时期。本文从《弗洛斯河上的磨坊》中深层的能源转型叙事入手,通过考察艾略特小说中生产方式的变化以及现代性在小说中的呈现形式,重点阐释小说深层叙事中以自然流动能源为基础的高级有机经济和以煤炭为能源储备基础的矿物燃料经济之间的关系,并兼顾维多利亚时期的政治经济活动,分析能源转型以及与之相伴而来的现代性对当时人们的生存方式和精神状况所带来的影响。

The social period that George Eliot pays attention to is the transitional period from agricultural to industrial civilization,and also from pre-modern society to modern society caused by the energy transition.This paper starts with the deep narrative of energy transformation in The Mill on the Floss by examining the change of production methods and presentation of modernity in Eliot’s novel,focusing on the relationship between the“advanced organic economy”based on the natural flow of energy and“mineral fuel economy”based on coal as the energy reserve in the deep narrative of the novel,and taking into account the economic politics of the Victorian era by analyzing the impact of energy and constantly-changing cultural conceptualization on the way people live and their mentality.