在未来遭遇现在:“新西兰来客”和维多利亚人的未来历史焦虑

The New Zealander and the Victorian Future-Historical Anxieties

本文聚焦于维多利亚时代流行的文化符号之一“新西兰来客”。通过截取维多利亚时代文化话语对这一符号的具体运用,本文从细节入手重新讨论维多利亚时代的历史意识这一经典课题,意在论证“新西兰来客”的流行源于维多利亚人对自己时代在未来的历史定位和评价的焦虑。激活这个文化符号使得维多利亚文化精英可以从当下抽离,甚至主动设想如何保全当下的成就从而保证未来人对自己的时代有正面的评价。这种争取未来人认可的紧迫感正源自线性史观对进步的强调所带来的焦虑,而“新西兰来客”正是这一焦虑在文化话语中的落脚点。

This paper focuses on one of the most popular Victorian cultural symbols,the New Zealander.Zooming in on the specific instances where the Victorian cultural discourse mobilizes this symbol,this paper re-engages with the issue of the Victorian sense of history,a perennial topic in Victorian Studies.It argues that the popularity of the New Zealander has to do with the Victorians’ anxiety over their own historical legacies.By activating this cultural symbol,the Victorian cultural elites were able to distance themselves from their own historical moment and even actively imagine ways to preserve the achievements of the present to ensure positive judgments from the future.This pressing sense to impress the future people derives from the anxieties caused by the emphasis on progress dictated by a teleological view of history,and the New Zealander is an instantiation of such anxieties in the Victorian cultural discourse.