《南方与北方》:英国维多利亚时期工业小说中的共同体想象

North and South:The Community Imagination in Victorian Industrial Novels

伊丽莎白·盖斯凯尔的代表作《南方与北方》是英国维多利亚时期工业小说的典范之作。作家构置了南方与北方互为镜像的文本异质空间,直面英国工业化时期城乡冲突、劳资矛盾、性别政治等社会问题,通过男女主人公从对峙到倾慕的情感过程透视社会转型时期各阶层的精神探索与成长。在这部对话体小说轻松的皮肤之下,嵌入了基于空间、性别和政治三个维度的现实关怀与焦虑,而阅读、对话、契约在文本中成为主人公克服困境的媒介与手段。超越地域差异、调和性别冲突、化解劳资矛盾的文本乌托邦,反映出以盖斯凯尔夫人为代表的维多利亚时期小说家们的共同体想象。其包容他者的共同体构想不止于家庭和契约模式,还蕴含了一种关系共同体和价值共同体理想,这一方面回应了英国十九世纪初的社会团结问题,同时对身处人类命运共同体时代的我们也有启示意义。

North and South is a masterpiece of Victorian industrial fiction.Mrs.Gaskell,the author,constructs the heterogeneous space of the south and the north,which are mirror images of each other.She faced the social problems such as urban-rural conflict and labor-capital conflict in the industrial period of Britain,and examined the spiritual exploration and growth of various social strata through the emotional process of the hero and heroine from confrontation to admiration.Under the relaxed skin of this dialogic novel,the writer's realistic concern and anxiety about space,gender and politics are embedded,while reading,dialogue and contract became the media and means for the protagonists to overcome the difficulties in the text.The textual utopia of transcending regional differences,reconciling gender conflicts and resolving labor conflicts reflects the community imagination of Victorian industrial novelists represented by Mrs.Gaskell.Her vision of inclusive community is not only about family and contract mode,but also contains an ideal of relational community and value community,which on the one hand responds to the social solidarity in the early 19th century in Britain,and on the other has implications for us in the era of a community with shared future for mankind.