笛福小说中的身体叙事与英国性建构

The Body Narrative and the Construction of Englishness in Defoe's Novels

身体是笛福小说中循环出现且颇为引人瞩目的一个意象,身体的再现构成意识形态话语,涵摄了种族、性别和民族等诸多要素。笛福小说中的身体叙事不仅反映了生命个体的生存体验,亦是作者建构英国性的诗学手段。借由身体叙事,笛福塑造了英国现代公民的形象谱系:凭借勤勉自律消除身体饥饿的帝国殖民者;命运多舛、卖身为生的底层女性;疫病重创之下重建民族共同体的伦敦市民。身体叙事与笛福对英国性的审视同频共振,既有力呼应了18世纪初期现代民族国家崛起的时代潮流,又深刻影响了后世小说家的身体书写与国族想象。

Body is a recurrent and remarkable image in Defoe's novels.The representation of body constitutes an ideological discourse,incorporating such elements as race,gender,and nation.The body narrative in his novels not only reveals the life experience of individuals,but serves as a poetic means to construct Englishness.Through body narrative,Defoe creates the image pedigree of British modern citizens which includes the imperial colonizer who survives physical hunger with diligence and self-discipline,the lower-class women who suffer so much and prostitute themselves for a livelihood,and the London citizens who rebuild their national community in the wake of the devastating pandemic.The body narrative resonates with Defoe's rethinking of Englishness,effectively echoing the rise of modern nation-state in the early 18th century while profoundly shaping the body writing and the nation-state imagination of the later novelists.