Management and Care in a Victorian Community: The Community of Women in Elizabeth Gaskell's Letters and Cranford

維多利亞社群的管理照顧：伊麗莎白．蓋斯凱爾書信和《克蘭福德鎮》中的女性社群

10.6184/TKR.202406_54(2).0004

Hong-Jin Lu

Victorian era ； community management ； female community ； Elizabeth Gaskell ； Cranford ； 維多利亞時代 ； 社群管理 ； 女性社群 ； 伊麗莎白．蓋斯凱爾 ； 《克蘭福德鎮》

Tamkang Review

54卷2期（2024 / 06 / 01）

77 - 104

英文;繁體中文

In response to the disparity between the rich and the poor of Victorian Britain that worsened due to the laissez-faire economics of the time, numerous philosophers proposed ideology-based solutions to the plight of the poor. Anglican sisterhoods of unmarried women were formed to provide charity to individuals of the lower classes. In contrast to male philosophers who often spoke of the need for mutual care and improvement in communities under the aegis of patriarchal hegemony, Anglican women's organizations, such as Priscilla Sellon's Sisters of Mercy, provided charitable care in practices, as well as created a community in which unmarried women could establish an identity by participating in public affairs outside of the domestic sphere. The importance of these female sisterhoods is indicated in the letters and novels of Elizabeth Gaskell. In her letters, Gaskell indicates that she approves of Sellon's community of single women where women are given the opportunity to assume a role other than that of the wife and mother expected in Victorian Britain. In addition, Gaskell's Cranford presents the story of an Amazonian community under a system of female leadership and governance in which older women are empowered to manage community care. Cranford conveys Gaskell's thoughts and concerns regarding female public identity through the problems and interactions of the women in Cranford in a time of economic transformation. The novel presents the strategies that women and men employ for community management, where management is initially patriarchal and eventually shifts toward a more gender fluid form in response to social change and as a means of solving the problems encountered by citizens of the town. At the beginning of the novel, when the community is run by Deborah Jenkyns, governance of the community is authoritarian and paternalistic. After Deborah dies, however, class and gender expectations begin to shift, and the community functions more like a cooperative. Through this transformation, Gaskell addresses the topics of gender identity, class ideology, and participation in community affairs.

英國維多利亞時代的貧富差距因自由放任經濟而加劇，許多哲學家提出具有意識形態的解決窮困方案，聖公會未婚婦女姊妹會的成立也提供下層階層慈善援助。有別於男性哲學家常論及的父權社區關懷和改善，英國聖公會的婦女組織，如普里西拉．塞隆的慈悲修女會，在行動實踐中提供慈善關懷，並創建未婚婦女能夠參與非家庭領域內的公共事務來建立身分認同之社群。伊莉莎白．蓋斯凱爾的信件和小說表明了這些修女會的重要性。蓋斯凱爾在信中表示，她贊許塞隆的單身女性社區，讓女性有機會扮演除了當時社會所期待的妻子和母親之外的角色。此外，蓋斯凱爾的《克蘭福德鎮》講述了在女性領導和治理體系下的亞馬遜社區故事，在該體系中，年長婦女有權管理社區照顧；這部小說透過經濟轉型時期的小鎮女性所遭遇的問題和互動，來傳達作者對女性公共身份的想法和擔憂。小說亦呈現女性和男性在社區管理中所採用的策略，其中的管理最初是父權制的，最終因應社會變革，轉向具高度性別流動性的管理形式，並作為解決小鎮居民遇到的問題的一種方式。故事由黛博拉．詹金斯管理的獨裁和家長制社群生活開始，但隨著黛博拉去世後，階級和性別期望開始發生變化，社區的運作演變為合作式。透過這種轉變，蓋斯凱爾探討了性別認同、階級意識形態和社群事務參與等主題。