Enabling Narrative: Didacticism in Jane West's "A Gossip's Story" and "A Tale of the Times"

賦予敘述的能力：《流言故事》及《時代的故事》中展露的教訓主義

翁怡錚(Yi-Cheng Weng)

反雅各賓派小說 ； 教訓主義 ； 法國大革命 ； 蕙絲特 ； 《流言故事》 ； 《時代的故事》 ； anti-Jacobin novels ； didacticism ； the French Revolution ； Jane West ； A Gossip's Story ； A Tale of the Times

小說與戲劇

22卷1期（2012 / 12 / 01）

103 - 120

英文

在十八世紀末至十九世紀初，當英國面臨前所未有的革命動亂威脅時，保守派小說家如何參與革命論述的辯論呢？本文企圖釐清蕙絲特如何透過《流言故事》及《時代的故事》兩本小說，與政治立場相對立的革命派作家展開對話。時臨法國大革命後期，身為反雅各賓派小說家，蕙絲特的作品在當時擁有著廣大讀者群。蕙絲特謹慎地於兩本小說中，勾勒出反革命論述。蕙絲特作品中呈現的教訓主義，不僅為當代女性找到了發聲的管道，蕙絲特也拓展了女性作家在性別權力不間斷的改革過程中的發揮空間。

In what ways did conservative novelists of the 1790s engage in the gendered debate in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century, when Britain faced an unprecedented scale of revolutionary unrest? This paper focuses on how Jane West, one of the most popular anti-Jacobin novelists whose works have attracted a large readership in the turbulent period, promoted antirevolutionary messages against revolutionary ideologies in her ”A Gossip's Story” (1796) and ”A Tale of the Times” (1799). The didacticism revealed in her works holds a symbolic significance of her revolt against radical writers of the 1790s. West carefully constructed her stories within a socially acceptable framework. The didactic elements underlying West's novels imply her attempt to map out the incessantly modified construction of power relations and her negotiation for the utterance of female voices in this period.

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