过度与克制——从消费文化视角解读《简•爱》

Excess and Restraint—An Analysis of Jane Eyre from the Perspective of Consumer Culture

随着工业化和商品化的发展,十九世纪的英国进入“消费社会”。夏洛蒂•勃朗特的代表作《简•爱》写作于十九世纪,展现了英国维多利亚时期的消费文化图景,塑造了多个消费主义者形象。本文结合鲍德里亚的消费社会理论,试图通过对《简•爱》中消费文化的研究和其中不同的消费者进行剖析,来窥探出勃朗特对消费主义价值观的态度以及人物如何在不同的消费选择中建构他们的社会身份。《简•爱》反映了消费主义泛滥的文化现象和勃朗特对消费文化的担忧,并且在一定程度上对这一现象进行了抨击。小说中深受消费主义影响的人物依靠消费来彰显自己的身份和地位,并未建构自己真正的主体性;而女主人公简•爱不受消费主义所控制,保持了自己不为物质条件所定义的主体性。

With the progress of industrialization and commercialism, Britain entered the “consumer society” in the 19th century. Charlotte Brontë presents us with a broad picture of the consumer culture of the Victorian period in England and portrays several consumer images in her masterpiece Jane Eyre which was written in the 19th century. Through the study of consumer culture and the analysis of different consumers in Jane Eyre, based on Baudrillard’s Consumer Society Theory, this paper attempts to explore Brontë’s attitude towards the values of consumerism and how the characters construct their social identities in different consumption choices. Jane Eyre reflects the cultural phenomenon of rampant consumerism and Brontë’s concern about consumer culture, and to some extent, it criticizes this phenomenon. The characters deeply influenced by consumerism in the novel rely on consumption to show their identity and status, and do not construct their real subjectivity whereas the heroine Jane Eyre is not controlled by consumerism and maintains her subjectivity which is not defined by material conditions.