利己与利他:乔治·艾略特《米德尔马契》中的慈善与女性  

Selfism v.s.Altruism:Philanthropy and Women in George Eliot's Middlemarch

作　　者：钱丽雯 

机构地区：[1]北京大学英语系

出　　处：《英语文学研究》2024年第1期74-90,共17页Journal of Literature in English

摘　　要：乔治·艾略特的经典小说《米德尔马契》刻画了早期维多利亚社会的全景图,而慈善作为此幅全景图的重要骨架却甚少得到关注。植根于英国悠长的济贫传统,用以缓解贫富不公和阶级矛盾的慈善事业在19世纪跌宕前进,迎来一个“改进时代”。一方面,工业社会中的慈善偏离了宗教的仁爱初衷,逐渐掺入各种世俗化动机,利他的慈善演变成利己之举。另一方面,慈善的公共化、政治化以及机构化,推动着公共事务的发展;新型医院和住房计划两条重要线索紧密编码于小说主要情节之中。从住房计划来看,女主人公多萝西娅与19世纪中叶女慈善家奥太维亚·希尔形成对比,体现出世纪初期女性力量在慈善领域中的困境与机遇。《米德尔马契》中的慈善书写再现了19世纪人们慈善观念的转变,从精神层面为慈善作史,成为只记载物质捐赠的慈善史学的重要补充。George Eliot's Middlemarch offers a panorama of the early Victorian society;but philanthropy as an important theme has not received due attention.Rooted in Britain's age-old tradition of poverty relief,and serving to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in order to alleviate class conflicts,philanthropy went through ups and downs in the nineteenth century,ushering in"the age of improvement".On the one hand,philanthropy in the industrial society deviated from its religious and beneficent intention,and entangled itself in various secular motives,turning the altruistic practices into selfish means.On the other hand,philanthropy which was more publicized,politicized and institutionalized,accelerated the development of public affairs.Two important clues,new hospital and housing project respectively,are implicitly encoded in the novel's major plot.In terms of the housing project,the heroine Dorothea forms a contrast with Octavia Hill,an active female philanthropist in the 1860s,highlighting the difficulties and opportunities which women encounter in the field of philanthropy.Middlemarch represents a change in people's notion of philanthropy;its record of the spiritual side of philanthropy serving as a kind of complement to the philanthropic history which is usually based on pecuniarydonations.

关 键 词：艾略特 慈善史 利他主义 女性成长 

分 类 号：I561.074[文学—其他各国文学]