“大改革”时期陀思妥耶夫斯基的英法书写

Dostoevsky’s Representation of Britain and France during the Period of the “Great Reforms”

“大改革”时期,陀思妥耶夫斯基通过对英、法两个重要他者的书写来探寻俄罗斯发展道路。他在《冬天记的夏天印象》中将伦敦与巴黎描绘为堕落欧洲的代表,挑战了关于历史进步的乐观想象。但俄法之间的思想文化渊源让作家对法国持有更为复杂的态度。之后,在极端情境下完成的小说《赌徒》罕见地塑造了一位英国好人阿斯特列,体现出陀思妥耶夫斯基对一个常识化世界最大限度的敬意;然而对普遍、确定之物,也即所谓“伟大”的追求让他终究更能理解法国唯理性主义传统的诱惑所在。随着俄罗斯社会日益分裂,陀思妥耶夫斯基在创作中与激进话语展开激烈搏斗,同时又提供了自己的乌托邦方案。相较于持续给作家带来焦虑的法国传统,被认为将幸福置于伟大之上的英国经验并未引发其深层共鸣。

During the period of the “Great Reforms,” F. M. Dostoevsky explored the way of Russia’s development through his representation of Britain and France as the other. In his Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, he depicts London and Paris as the embodiment of the degenerate Europe, a move that challenged the optimistic imagination of historical progress.However, Dostoevsky seems to have a more complicated attitude toward France due to its intellectual and cultural relation to Russia. Later, The Gambler, the novel that he wrote under extreme circumstances, demonstrates his maximum respect to a common-sense world with an extremely rare portrayal of a good Englishman, Astley. His pursuit of something universal and definitive, or the ideal of “greatness,” eventually offered him a better understanding of what the French rationalist tradition was so appealing about. As the split in Russian society was increasingly widening, Dostoevsky fights fiercely against the radical discourse and, at the same time, puts forward his own utopian model in his works. As compared to the French tradition that brought the writer so much anxiety persistently, the British experience that seems to have valued “happiness” way over “greatness”, never resonated deeply with him.