何为英国人?金斯顿海洋历险小说中的青少年教育理念

What is an Englishman?The Education of the Young in W.H.G.Kingston’s Sea Adventure Novels

英国维多利亚中期代表性儿童文学作家W.H.G.金斯顿关心社会事务,注重青少年教育,其海洋历险小说是其青少年教育思想的体现。金斯顿的历险小说代表作《捕鲸手彼得》《三个海军士官生》通过几个英国青少年的不同海洋历险经历,刻画了具有男子气概、国家荣誉感和责任观念、团队合作和自我牺牲精神、重视宗教虔诚,同时致力于殖民扩张的英国青少年形象。通过对这些青少年成长历程的描绘,金斯顿阐述了自己心目中的理想英国民族品格。金斯顿的青少年教育思想在当时具有一定的代表性,具有美化英国殖民扩张行为等时代局限性。对其作品的深入研究有助于我们更全面地批判和审视英国维多利亚社会的文化潮流和意识形态。

W.H.G.Kingston,a representative writer of British juvenile literature in mid-Victorian period,was deeply interested in the important social issues of his time.He was particularly devoted to the education of the young.His interest in these issues was best shown in his adventure novels.Two of his representative novels,Peter the Whaler and The Three Midshipmen,described the growth of the protagonists through various sea adventures all over the world.The young heroes of the novels were portrayed as manly youths with national pride and responsibility,good team spirit and a sense of self-sacrifice.They were also described as pious Christians who were concerned with the expansion of the British Empire.Through the depiction of the growth of such young men,Kingston advocated his ideal of Englishmen.As Kingston’s ideas about the education of the young is typical of that time in Britain,with such defects as justifying the British colonization,a careful examination of his works would help us better understand and criticize the Victorian culture and ideology.