田园幻象的解构:托马斯·哈代的乡村书写

A Deconstruction of the Pastoral Illusion:Thomas Hardy’s Rural Writing

托马斯·哈代的“性格与环境小说”系列是其小说创作的集大成者,其中的乡村书写是该系列小说的重要特色,体现了哈代关于英国乡村问题的深刻反思;不仅生动再现了当时英国乡村的真实状况,而且注入了哈代本人关于英国田园文学的独特思考和复杂态度:在看似描写田园风光、承袭英国田园书写传统的同时,解构了长期以来由想象和书写建构而成的“田园幻象”。在雷蒙·威廉斯的乡村与城市研究为主要理论依据的基础上,我们结合其他空间理论,探讨哈代“性格与环境小说”中的乡村书写对英国田园幻象的三重解构:乡村“天堂”的颠覆,“阿卡迪亚”的幻灭,理想乡村住宅的“坍塌”。

Thomas Hardy’s“novels of character and environment”are the most highly regarded of his fiction creation.The rural writing in these novels constitutes an important feature of Hardy’s works,embodying Hardy’s profound reflections on the problems of English countryside.These novels not only vividly represent the real condition of the English countryside at that time,but also incorporate Hardy’s unique thinking and complex attitude towards English pastoral literature:while seemingly describing the pastoral scenery and inheriting the British pastoral writing conventions,Hardy deconstructs the“pastoral illusion”constructed through imaginations and writings over a long time.Mainly drawing on Raymond Williams’s investigation into the dichotomy of the country and the city and also referring to other spatial theories,this article attempts to examine the triple deconstruction of the English pastoral illusion by the rural writing of Hardy’s“novels of character and environment,”namely,the subversion of the rural“Paradise,”shattering of an imagined“Acadia,”and“demolition”of idealized country houses.