以弗所的多重面相:《错误的喜剧》中的信仰碰撞与身份焦虑

Multifaceted Ephesus:Religious Collision and Identity Anxiety in The Comedy of Errors

莎士比亚《错误的喜剧》中的地点设置与剧情密切相关。故事发生地以弗所蕴含着矛盾性、混杂性与不确定性:这里既笼罩着东方的巫术迷雾,又回响着使徒保罗宣扬的神学教义;剧中频繁出现的商品与贸易活动,既再现了古代以弗所的商业枢纽地位,又指涉了早期现代英国如何在东地中海展开贸易。本文结合以弗所的地理与历史文化特征,解读该剧如何通过种种奇事呈现出这里的异域特征与信仰碰撞,以及英国人唯恐“变成土耳其人”的身份焦虑。借由刻画以弗所的多重面相,莎士比亚在剧中同时展现了喜剧与悲剧、过去与现在、异域与本土、疏远与亲近、古代异教与基督教、土耳其人与基督徒等二元之间的对立与纠缠。

In Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, the setting and the plot are closely related. Ephesus is a place of contradictions, hybridity and uncertainty: it is suffused with a mist of East pagan witchcraft while echoing Christian doctrines advocated by the Apostle Paul. Furthermore, the frequent occurrence of commodities and commercial activities not only refers to the ancient Ephesus as a commercial hub, but also alludes to the early modern England, which was actively involved in the East Mediterranean Sea trade. By analyzing the geographical, historical and cultural characteristics of Ephesus, this essay argues that the wonders that take place in Ephesus reveal its exotic attributes and religious collision,and also the British identity anxiety of “turning Turks.” In Shakespeare's portrayal of a multifaceted Ephesus, the binary oppositions and entanglements between comedy and tragedy, past and present, foreign and domestic, strangeness and familiarity, paganism and Christianity, Turks and Christians, are all fully manifested.