| 摘要: | 這篇論文將深入Frances Hodgson Burnett以及Lucy Maud Montgomery的小說的宗教世俗化過程。 本文延續著名學者Ann Douglas在他提出The feminization of American Culture(1976)中的理論19世紀末北美洲普羅文化女性化過程中， 創造出一種自溺 , 自戀的傾向。 使得一些原意要來改變社會的小說， 例如湯姆叔叔的小屋一書反而使讀者自溺，逃避大環境的現實狀況。 首章，以Burnett的 Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886)為例; 主角是一天使般七歲小男孩，前往英國繼承爵位。他的天使特質使他看見每一個人身上的優點， 缺點隱而不顯，使得尖酸刻薄的祖父便成善良可親。而這道德改進(moral regeneration)的結局使得此書大受歡迎，女性讀者創造一股消費風潮，即是後來評論家提及的Fauntleroy Plague。 第二章以Burnett的Secret Garden (1911)為例; 不同於前章，主角Mary並非天使般個性，事實上正好相反。從主角的轉變我們可以看出使道德轉變的媒介並非如同前章是一位天使般的腳色。在這章，道德轉變功能將由一個特定的空間–花園來執行。Mary以及書中其他失調的腳色都在這個空間之中得到救贖。 第三章將道德轉變的媒介從特定空間延伸至一個可以複製的社群。Lucy Maud Montgomery的Anne of Green Gables (1911)發生在虛構地Avonlea。所以當閱讀這創造出來的人間天堂時，讀者感受到那股神性的美好(the feeling of the divine)。經由購買書籍或擁有相關產品，我們同時也擁有了天堂。 I will look at the secularization of Anglo American culture as reflective in the novels of Francis Hodgson Burnett and Lucy Maud Montgomery. Building upon the insight of Ann Douglas’s The Feminization of American Culture (1976), I will argue that these authors feed narcissism, nostalgic longing for a sense of awe, and other feelings associated with the worship of the divine. Extending the nostalgia for the holy extends into the garden, land and community. In chapter one, the first novel I am going to look at is Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886) by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Cedric, an American boy goes to Britain to succeed his earldom. He is not only pure, innocent but also dolly like, golden locks, red lips and rosy checks. His beauty makes people around him in awe. He possesses the ability to see the goodness in everyone around him, including the cold-hearted grandfather. Cedric transcends people’s shortcomings by exalting the good. Creating an illusion of a better characteristic of whom, who would like to maintain it by actually becoming that bettered person. While the readers read about the moral regeneration, they themselves sink into the self-indulgent of narcissism by dressing their children as Little Lord Fauntleroy. The nostalgia for the divine cannot be contained within figures; it has shifted to another agent---land. In my second chapter I will look at another novel by Burnett The Secret Garden (1911), which tells about an India born British girl, Mary Lennox adopted by her uncle after her parents’ death. She is transformed by the intrinsic Moor land and cultivating a garden of her own. Here we see the sentimental texts extending to the domain of domestic landscape of garden. Through Dickon, the country boy, who is like Saint Francis in Assisi, talks to animals and turns the barren into fruitful garden, Mary is led to cultivate the garden/ land. Dickon plays the role of flattering the possibility of the other characters. Dickon spreads his influence from the garden over Mary onto the little landlord Colin. In my third chapter, I will look at the novel of Anne of Green Gables (1911), which is about an orphan, Anne Shirley adopted by elder siblings. When the red haired girl comes to Avonlea, she revitalizes the indifference small town people into a bonded community. In the eye of this verbose girl, Avonlea is paradise on earth. She convinces the readers to feel the same way as she does through the power of imagination. It is Anne that makes the formerly deemed ordinary trees, ponds and the fields extraordinary. Avonlea becomes the influential garden community, which comforts, amazes and enchants the indifferent villagers/ readers. Anne gains her power not by what she does to the landscape; it is what she does to the readers. We see the secularization process extends to community. The description of Avonlea is almost Eden like expressing a sense of awe and divine, which is the sentiment the villagers never sense before. She mediates her “feelings” of the divine through the imagination she casts on the scenery onto the community. The narcissism comes out from the sentiments the community provides creating commodity culture. The social impact Anne of Green Gables brings creating the consumerism, which comes from the link and bonding between the readers and the text. The frenzy of dressing little boys in velvet suit, keeping their hair in long locks as Fauntleroy does by the mothers then has generated a phenomenon of “Fauntleroy Plague”. It is also the case when Anne of Green Gables products spread across the continent; the heaven on earth Avonlea has its replicate in Hokkaido, Japan. The audiences, instead of converting into the good deeds or being imaginative, buy themselves a red haired doll or key chain to the Secret Garden sharing the “unique” feeling of the divine. |
