摘要
20世纪30年代以来,有研究者一再指责威廉·迪恩·豪威尔斯是一位微笑现实主义作家,但这样的指责失之偏颇。豪威尔斯以《安妮·基尔伯恩》为代表的大量社会小说表明:1886年草市血案之后,其文学创作发生了根本转向。《安妮·基尔伯恩》创作于草市血案的历史节点,刻画了19世纪末美国资本主义工商业者与底层劳工之间日益尖锐的阶级矛盾,揭示了中产阶级仁爱观的伪善性,表明了豪威尔斯实则是一位有着强烈的社会问题意识的批判现实主义作家。
Since the 1930s,some researchers have repeatedly accused William Dean Howells of being a smiling realist writer,but such accusations are debatable.The numerous social novels of Howells,represented by Anne Kilburn,show that Howells'literary production has took a radical turn since Haymarket Riot(1886).Created at the historical moment of Haymarket Riot,Annie Kilburn portrays the increasingly sharp class conflicts between capitalists and the lower-class laborers at the end of the nineteenth-century America,criticizes the hypocrisy of middle-class benevolence,indicating that Howells is actually a critical realist writer with strong awareness of social problems.
