论中世纪英国的共同体思想与文学想象

The Idea of Community and Its Literary Imagination in Medieval English Literature

中世纪英国文学从古英语到中古英语、从英雄史诗到罗曼司经历了600余年的漫长历程。作为世界古典文学遗产的组成部分,中世纪英国文学折射出一个值得关注的现象,即共同体思想与文学想象如影随形,相辅而行。那些在英国文学史上步入经典行列的传世佳作不约而同地将共同体作为文学想象的客体,并且在反映社群的生存状态时体现出强烈的命运意识和共同体理念,从而不仅为英国文学的命运共同体书写奠定了基础,也为以后历代英国作家提供了一个绵亘不绝且内涵丰富的创作题材。本文旨在考察中世纪英国共同体思想对文学想象的影响,探讨几部经典名作中的共同体表征,并揭示“诺曼征服”所引发的英国共同体思想和文学想象的深刻演变。

Medieval English literature,from Old English to Middle English,from heroic epic to romance,covers a long history of more than 600 years.As a component part of world classical literature,medieval English literature reveals a quite noteworthy phenomenon,that is,the idea of community and literary imagination were complementary to each other in the course of development.The masterpieces of the Middle Ages invariably take community as an object for literary imagination and often reflect a strong sense of fate and the idea of community in the representation of human life.Therefore,they have not only laid the foundation of community writing in English literature,but also provided an enduring and highly connotative subject for writers of later generations.This article aims to explore the idea of community and its literary imagination in Medieval English Literature,with reference to several well-known classical works,and examine the significant changes in the wake of the Norman Conquest.