简·奥斯丁:别样的“文化研究”

Jane Austen:An Alternative Culture Study

在奥斯丁批评史上,较早采用历史方法来研究其小说的,当属英国学者查普曼。早在20世纪20年代,查普曼就仔细校勘和详细注释了奥斯丁的小说,并撰写了短文来介绍那个时代的马车与旅行、舞蹈和舞厅、举止和礼仪等背景。20世纪末,由于'文化研究'盛行,学者们的历史兴趣再次聚焦于通俗文化。如果说查普曼更偏爱文化和语言的典雅,有力地推动了早期的奥斯丁'经典化',而当下某些学者特别属意奥斯丁与服饰、饮食、针线活、舞蹈、儿童、兄弟姐妹等的关联,进一步刺激了以奥斯丁为招牌的英美'文化产业'。

In the reception of Jane Austen, R. W. Chapman is among the forerunners who have adopted a historical approach to this popular novelist. In the 1920s,besides producing a scholarly edition of Austen’s novels with a huge amount of detailed notes, Chapman also wrote articles to explain carriages and travel,balls and dances,manners and etiquette etc. in Austen’s life time. With the Cultural Studies prevailing since the late 20th century, historical curiosities have again focused on the popular culture. If Chapman promoted the early canonization of Austen with his preference for the elegance of language and culture,some contemporary academics have boosted the Austen culture industry in English-speaking countries with their peculiar focus on the affinities between the novelist and clothes, food, needle work, dancing, children, and her siblings.