伦敦城市喜剧中的地理空间--评《一座城市的戏剧:伦敦喜剧中的地方1598-1642》

Spaces of London Comedy:A Review of Theater of a City:The Places of London Comedy 1598-1642

文艺复兴时期反映伦敦普通市民生活的"城市喜剧"颇为直接地反映了"空间的实在",即伦敦的环境和社会变化。通过构想、建构、解释等手段,戏剧家们使一些具体的物理的地方逐渐变为容易辨认的重要社会空间和心理空间。观众在剧作家创造的戏剧空间中领悟城市地理空间的变化,并形成一定的"认知"。吉恩·霍华德的著作《一座城市的戏剧:伦敦喜剧中的地方1598—1642》用新历史主义、文化地理学等跨学科的方法,带领读者重新认识伦敦城市喜剧中具有代表性的四种重要地理空间,从中窥见伦敦乃至英国的历史、经济和社会变迁,领悟巨变时期伦敦(新)居民所面临的观念上的挑战,以及戏剧在城市共同体的意识形态建构过程中所发挥的作用。

City comedies focusing on everyday urban life in Renaissance London quite directly reflect the"space as lived,"that is,London's environmental and social changes.By offering"conception,"construction,and interpretation,the playwrights transform specific places into recognizable social and psychological spaces.In Theater of a City:The Places of London Comedy 1598-1642,Jean E.Howard takes interdisciplinary approaches such as New Historicism and Cultural Geography,explores four types of typical spaces significant in London comedy,and helps readers form their“perception”of historical,economic and social changes in London and in England itself.Through her examination,Howard reveals the conceptual challenges faced by the(new)inhabitants of London in this period of upheaval,and the role that the theatre plays in the construction of the ideologyofurban communities.