都市与大革命-《双城记》中的空间叙事_英语论文

The Metropolis and the Revolution-Narrative of Spaces in A Tale of Two Cities

摘要

维多利亚时代的英国经历了前所未有的变化。随着蒸汽船，铁路和电报的发明，社会也在不断的进步。维多利亚时代的英国也深深的被“政治经济学”所影响。政府逐渐远离市场并且削减济贫力度，滋生了一系列社会问题。查尔斯·狄更斯是一位多产的作家，他的作品多为揭露社会弊病，他本人也积极投身于社会改革。他在十九世纪伦敦公民的一片阴沉的怒火中完成了他的第十二本小说《双城记》。作为一本集中概括他资产阶级人道主义的小说，《双城记》与他的其他作品不同的地方在于这也是一本代表英国人看待法国大革命观点的小说。本论文与先前研究相比来说，采用了新的视角——空间叙事理论来观察这部小说并且探讨了《双城记》中的物理，社会和文本空间。空间叙事理论是经过两位思想家——亨利·列斐伏尔和加布里埃尔·佐兰奠定基础并发展的。本论文也将维克多·雨果描写法国大革命的小说《九三年》与《双城记》进行对比以探究空间叙事是如何影响《双城记》的成型，如何反应查尔斯·狄更斯的政治倾向以及他如何从地缘政治的角度解读法国大革命等问题。本论文最后得出，与大众期待不符的是，作为一名英国作家，生活在一个崇拜君主和女皇的国家和时代，狄更斯在体制性的政治改革方面是十分保守的。

关键词：查尔斯·狄更斯；《双城记》；空间叙事；物理空间；社会空间；法国大革命；公共空间 

Abstract

Victorian era witnessed unprecedented changes in London with inventions like steam vessels, telegraph and railways. It was also an era highly influenced by “political economy”, which encouraged government to keep distance from the market and restrain from helping the poor. Many social problems like layoff, child labors on mines, illiteracy, unsanitary environments and crime. Charles Dickens is a productive writer and a dedicated reformer whose works focus mainly on exposing social problems. He wrote and completed his twelfth work A Tale of Two Cities amidst the sullen rage among London citizens in in the 19th century. As one of the novels epitomizing his bourgeois humanitarianism, A Tale of Two Cities differs from his other works in that it also represents the opinions held by Britons on the French Revolution. This paper is different from previous studies on this novel as it adopts a new perspective-- narrative of space, which was developed under two thinkers, Henri Lefebvre and Gabriel Zoran and discusses how Charles Dickens structured the physical, social and textual space in the novel. To explore how the narrative of space in A Tale of Two Cities affects the formation of the novel, how it reflects the political tendency of Charles Dickens, and how the French Revolution is interpreted by him from a geopolitical perspective, this thesis also compares it with that of Victor Hugo’s Ninety-Three, which also deals with the French Revolution. The finding is that this British writer, living in an era when and a country where kings or queens were worshiped, is rather conservative when it comes to systematic political reform as opposed to what readers usually expect.   

Key Words: Charles Dickens; A Tale of Two Cities; Narrative of Space; Physical Space; Social Space; The French Revolution; Public Space

Contents

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

摘要 iii

Introduction 5

Historical Background 5

Literature Review 8

Overview on the Theory of Space Narratives 10

Chapter One Physical Space in A Tale of Two Cities 13

1.1 Prison 13

1.1.1 Prison as an Enclosed Space 14

1.1.2 Prison as a Symbol of Oppression 15

1.1.3 Prison as the National Instrument of Violence 16

1.1.4 Dickens’ Attitude toward the Prison 18

1.2 Public Sphere: Streets, Tavern and Assembly Square 19

1.2.1 Information Aggregation and Dissemination 20

1.2.2 Public Space for Emotional Mobilization 22

Chapter Two Social Space in A Tale of Two Cities 25

2.1 Madame Defarge: Actively Engaged in the Revolution 25

2.2 Dr. Manette: Crushed by the Relentless Revolution 28

2.3 Mr. Lorry: Dispassionately Observed the Revolution 29

Chapter Three Textual Space in A Tale of Two Cities and Ninety Three 30

3.1 Different perspectives of viewing the revolution 30

Conclusion Political Tendencies of Hugo and Dickens 34

Work Cited 39