19世纪英国的社会焦虑与仇华情绪——鸦片贸易背景下的狄更斯遗作《德鲁德疑案》

外国文学研究 ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (1): 141-151.

19世纪英国的社会焦虑与仇华情绪——鸦片贸易背景下的狄更斯遗作《德鲁德疑案》

宁艺阳

发布日期:2021-03-05
作者简介:宁艺阳,华中科技大学外国语学院博士生,主要从事英美小说研究。

Social Anxiety and Anti-Chinese Sentiments in the 19^th-Century Britain: Reading Dickens' Unfinished Novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood in the Context of Opium Trade

Ning Yiyang

Published:2021-03-05
About author:Ning Yiyang is a PhD candidate at the School of Foreign Languages, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Wuhan 430074, China). His research focus is British and American fiction. Email: 1151343738@qq.com

摘要/Abstract

内容摘要： 狄更斯于未竟遗作《德鲁德疑案》中有关鸦片吸食行为和伦敦烟馆的描写值得深究,且作品中并不多见的几个华人形象具有种族和历史层面的多重指涉。晚年频繁服用鸦片酊的狄更斯深知鸦片之害,并在小说中藉由鸦片公主和贾思伯的症状对其予以间接揭露。自第一次中英鸦片战争起,有关鸦片烟馆和鸦片成瘾者的新闻叙述话语频繁见诸英国报端,反映了英国当时暗中发酵的社会焦虑和持续升温的反华情绪。这些报道想象式地建构并污名化了华人刻板形象,企图将英国白人接触并习染鸦片烟瘾的罪责归咎于在英华人。小说中的鸦片书写和华人形象的分析能够为我们提供管窥中英鸦片贸易、两次鸦片战争等宏大历史背景的独到视角。

关键词: 狄更斯, 《德鲁德疑案》, 鸦片贸易

Abstract: Dickens' representation of opium-smoking and London's opium dens in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the novel that was left unfinished upon his death, is worth exploring in depth. Also, his portrayal of several rarely featured Chinese characters in the novel may carry multiple racial and historical implications. Dickens, who frequently took laudanum during his twilight years and, therefore, was keenly aware of opium's peril, exposes its harmful effects implicitly in the novel by describing the symptoms of Princess Puffer and Jasper. Since the First Sino-British Opium War, news reports about opium dens and opium addicts had frequently appeared in British newspapers, which reflected the simmering social anxieties and intensifying anti-Chinese sentiments in England at that time. These reports imaginatively constructed and stigmatized Chinese stereotypes in an effort to scapegoat the Chinese in Britain for white Britons' exposure and addiction to opium smoking. An analysis of the representation of opium and Chinese characters in the novel can provide us a unique perspective into the profound historical background of the Sino-British opium trade and the two Opium Wars.

Key words: Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, opium trade

宁艺阳. 19世纪英国的社会焦虑与仇华情绪——鸦片贸易背景下的狄更斯遗作《德鲁德疑案》[J]. 外国文学研究, 2021, 43(1): 141-151.

Ning Yiyang. Social Anxiety and Anti-Chinese Sentiments in the 19^th-Century Britain: Reading Dickens' Unfinished Novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood in the Context of Opium Trade[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2021, 43(1): 141-151.

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