古物收藏与沃尔特·司各特的历史小说创作

Antiquities Acquisition and Historical Writing of Walter Scott

在以《古董家》为代表的历史小说中,沃尔特·司各特展示了18世纪古物主义与历史小说创作之间的关系,以“探究型历史小说”这一书写样式探索了现代知识体系的另类建构方式。长期以来,人们对古物收藏者陷于琐碎无用事务和缺乏男性气概持嘲讽态度。对此,司各特在《古董家》中通过人物形象的刻画予以回应,同时指出古物收藏者收集、整理和陈列历史“垃圾”和知识碎片,不仅是对宏大历史叙事的补充,而且是对地方和民族另类叙事的突显。司各特摒弃了古物叙事难以卒读的弊病,以哥特叙事融入地方和民族叙事,辅以诙谐、讽刺的写作笔调,开创了历史小说创作新模式,建构了知识生产和流通新范式。

Scott demonstrated the connection between antiquarianism and historical novels in the 18th century,as typified by The Antiquary,and explored the alternative construction of modern knowledge system with his“enquiry-historical novels”.He echoed people’s long-time ridicule of antiquities collectors for being frivolous and useless,lacking masculinity,but claimed that the collecting,sorting out and displaying the historical“garbage”and knowledge fragments not only complement the grand historical narrative,but highlight local and national alternative narratives.He abandoned the obscure antiquarian narratives,integrated local and national narrative with Gothic features,supplemented by humorous satire,created a new mode of historical novel creation,and ushered in a new paradigm of knowledge production and circulation.