"The Flight in the Heather": The Search for the Father-Figure of Scotland in Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped"

原野上的奔馳：史帝文生的《綁架》小說中追尋蘇格蘭族裔父親的典範

林欣瑩(Hsin-Ying Lin)

史帝文生 ； 《綁架》 ； 成長小說 ； 文化認同 ； 文化異質 ； Robert L. Stevenson ； "Kidnapped" ； the Bildungsroman ； cultural identity ； cultural heterogeneity

小說與戲劇

22卷1期（2012 / 12 / 01）

41 - 74

英文

本論文旨在探討史帝文生在《綁架》小說中如何挪用成長小說的寫作文類提出蘇格蘭文化認同之模糊性的問題。出版於1886年，此時蘇格蘭尚未準備好坦然面對其境內種族文化異質的問題，此小說描述一青年成長於1750年代蘇格蘭高地與英格蘭之彼此文化交錯空間中特具有的兩難與困惑，並且道盡此掙扎夾雜著處在英格蘭的蘇格蘭人所勢必面對的複雜文化偏見。生於蘇格蘭低地的鄉村，男主角大衛面對的是一個刻意強化父系社會階級意識，並貶抑低社經階層的社會。本論文首先探討此小說挪用成長小說文類的傳統，再加以改編此文類的特色以適於描繪蘇格蘭的地方情境，而此描繪主軸則是呈現男主角生為蘇格蘭低地人卻缺乏對人性中邪惡與當時蘇格蘭境內各文化機制之陳腐積習的認識與瞭解。承然，文化異質性之議題的重要性也將一併檢視於蘇格蘭境內文化衝突的地方歷史情境中。本論文最後提出一些思考未來蘇格蘭境內文化發展的觀察，且這些觀察皆與此本小說中內蘊蘇格蘭文化認同之模糊性的未來式言說有密切關係。未來文化上的異質個體是否將會在一個漠視文化差異之未來社會中成為犧牲品？或者，這些異質個體是否將會歡納相容異種族的文化差異？

This essay explores how Robert L. Stevenson appropriates the ”Bildungsroman” mode of writing to raise questions about the ambiguity of Scottish cultural identity. Published in 1886, when Scotland was not yet ready to accept its own ethnic-cultural heterogeneity, ”Kidnapped” portrays the ambivalence and confusion of growing up in a state of cultural between-ness between the Scottish Highlands and British England in 1750s Scotland. The novel depicts how the eighteenth century Scottish Lowlander struggles with the ambiguity of cultural identity within Scotland; this struggle is compounded by the complex cultural prejudice a British Scot has to bear in England. Born as a Lowland country boy, David confounds a society that tries to demean the social class of his paternal inheritance. This essay will first explore Stevenson's use and further adaptation of the ”Bildungsroman” form in ”Kidnapped” by reading David as a Scottish Lowlander who lacks knowledge about the banality of domestic evil in Scotland. Next, the significance of cultural heterogeneity is examined within the context of Stevenson's comic critique of cultural conflicts within Scotland. This essay ultimately offers observations, on a somewhat more speculative level, in relation to the novel's discourse on the future of Scottish cultural identity-and thus a more open-minded attitude towards the possibility of a multi-cultural Scotland. Will culturally heterogeneous individuals fall victim to the perceived threat of a future in which existing categories of cultural difference have ceased to matter? Or will these individuals embrace the coexistence of many ethnicities?

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