摘要
纳撒尼尔.霍桑的第二部小说《七个尖角阁的宅子》并非一则简单的加尔文教道德寓言,在追溯品钦家族史的时候,作家有意将之置于更广阔的时空框架中加以观照,刻意凸显品钦家族与欧洲大陆、旧世界的关联。由此,作家以家族史的形式揭示了人类社会由农耕时代向现代资本主义模式转型的历史进程,再现了资本主义发展所导致的旧经济秩序解体和以阶级矛盾为核心的一系列时代问题。小说聚焦的是19世纪上半叶旨在疗治社会病症和设计理想社会的乌托邦改革运动。19世纪上半叶的美国,资本主义发展导致了劳工矛盾、贫富差距、阶级冲突等时代问题。面对危机,改革者、文化批评家和知识阶层开始反思美国社会和经济秩序存在的问题,以寻求疗治和改革良方,史学家把1830—1850年间的20年称作改革时代。小说体现了作家对改革运动的回应和思考:如果说,霍尔格雷夫代言了改革者与历史决裂的信心,那么,克利福德火车之旅则让我们洞悉了19世纪灼亮的乌托邦幻象。然而,作家近乎虚无主义的哲学观决定了他的保守主义立场,不仅对改革的狂热投以审慎的、质疑的目光,而且,认为任何改革运动和乌托邦设计注定都是徒劳的。霍桑的保守主义使他最终在文本中转向田园牧歌传统,相对于南北战争前的美国社会而言,作家似乎更为怀念相对稳定的、和谐有序的田园景象以及封建等级制所依附的农耕社会模式,借助田园牧歌传统,作家在小说里召唤出一种不同阶级和平友爱相处的幻象,实践了一种幻想式的阶层融合的解决方案。
Set in the volatile world of ante-bellum America, The House of the Seven Gables, the second Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne, mirrors in the vicissitudes of the Pyncheons over a century and a half the radical social changes and unsettling class issues consequent upon the rise of capitalism in the country. This es- say argues that though sympathetic with the utopian reform movement that flourished during the decades of 1830s to 1840s, Nathaniel Hawthorne, as an unswerving conservative, could not espouse its utopian vision and turns instead to an equally illusive ideal of class union and social solidarity which an age-old pastoral tradition helps to foster. In the novel, a radical stance of reform is embraced and then rejected by Holgrave, a daguerreotypist and a reformer; and the utopian illusion is temporarily evoked on a brief train ride by Clifford and Phoe- be and then revealed as impossible and almost wild attempts to escape the weight of the past and to begin anew. The abrupt ending in the promise of a pastoral retreat, while decidedly reveals Hawthorne＇s conservative understanding of all utopian or reform movements of his age, is also indicative of the author＇s desire for resolution and closure, if not politically, at least symbolically, and therefore might be read as a symbolic act on the part of the author to transcend class conflicts in a pastoral ideal.
出处
《上海大学学报（社会科学版）》
CSSCI
北大核心
2009年第6期131-142,共12页
Journal of Shanghai University(Social Sciences Edition)
