ST. Thomas à Becket and English Identity in the South English Legendary

《南英格蘭傳奇》中的貝克特與英格蘭認同

10.30095/SYJH.200606.0002

楊明蒼(Ming-Tsang Yang)

南英格蘭傳奇 ； 貝克特 ； 亨利二世 ； 國族 ； 英格蘭認同 ； 英國性 ； 外國性 ； South English Legendary ； Thomas Becket ； Henry Ⅱ ； nation ； English identity ； Englishness ； foreignness

中山人文學報

22期（2006 / 06 / 01）

15 - 29

英文

晚近學者對於中世紀是否有國族概念以及國族認同的表現有諸多辯論，而中古英文作品《南英格蘭傳奇》中長篇的貝克特傳正可提供相關討論絕佳的反思。以聖徒傳與教會事例為架構的《南英格蘭傳奇》側重英文／英國化且置身反諾曼／外國的論述傳統，更在為數可觀的英格蘭聖徒傳中嵌入其國族慾念。貝克特傳不僅處理國族認同與宗教認同間的交錯張力，也揭露英國性與外國性的糾葛，展現英格蘭認同的複雜面向。貝克特與亨利二世皆證明了英國性是變動不居、可重新定義的，而總主教與國王兩造的衝突所鋪陳對英格蘭認同的不同看法，也弔詭的預見國族概念的多價樣貌。此外，貝克特傳對法國國王與羅馬教皇的相關描述標榜外國性的正面意涵，超越偏狹的排外情結，也應許了對進步國族認同的積極想像。貝克特傳因此是關於英格蘭認同的雙重敘述，因為它讓英國性重得活力與新意，也戲劇化的鋪陳十三、十四世紀漸增的英國國族意識。

The legend of St. Thomas à Becket in the Middle English South English Legendary offers succinct reflection on the ongoing debates about the validity or possibility of talking about perceptions of the nation or expressions of national identity in the Middle Ages. As a vernacular work featuring the process of Englishing, the South English Legendary positions itself in the tradition of anti-Norman/foreign discourse and embeds its national impulses in the substantial proportion of English saints amidst the frame of saints' lives and events of the church. The climactic inclusion of the long legend of St. Thomas Becket not only addresses the tension and intersection of national and religious identities but also exposes the implications of Englishness and foreignness by reconfiguring a complex English identity beyond the rigid ethnic divide. While both Becket and Henry testify to the fact that the idea of Englishness is subject to change and redefinition, the fatal conflict between king and archbishop maps out different conceptions of English identity that paradoxically conjoin to envision a multivalent configuration of the English nation. Moreover, the legend's valorization of the element of foreignness in the positive accounts of the French king and the Roman pope promises the imagination of a progressive national identity transcending stiff xenophobia. The legend of St. Thomas Becket thus proves to be a double narrative of English identity, for it reinvests the tradition of Englishness with potential inclusiveness and dramatizes the growing sense of a new English nation in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

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