艾蜜莉狄瑾蓀與威廉華茲華斯和湯瑪士狄坤西跨大西洋的自然想像

Abstract

本計畫探究十九世紀美國詩人艾蜜莉狄瑾蓀,與英國作家威廉華滋華斯與湯瑪士迪昆西,跨大西洋的文學關係。計畫檢視這兩位在十九世紀中被美國文 藝媒體視為英國經典代表,卻風格迥異的作家,如何在荻瑾蓀的自然詩中, 被採用反思與重新書寫,與其如何反映出十九世紀文學中,跨大西洋與太平 洋之間,複雜的地理、文化、政治與國族想像的關係。學者們長久以來,針 對狄瑾蓀與浪漫主義之間的關係,做出各種不同詮釋。Harold Bloom 與 Joanne Feit Diehl 認為狄瑾蓀的詩,是對浪漫主義男性先驅的反抗。 Robert Weisbuch 與 Inder Nath Kher 則認為狄瑾蓀詩中對形而上學的追尋敘事,反 應浪漫詩派的精神。Margaret Homans 則認為狄瑾蓀的詩,解構在浪漫詩中 建立起的兩元對立。最近 Richard Gravil 與 Richard E. Brantley 進一步將狄 瑾蓀的詩放回英美浪漫主義傳統。此計畫循續研究跨西洋文學關係的傳統, 進一步將狄瑾蓀的自然詩放在美國十九世紀中對英國文學同時產生效仿、反 抗、與連結複雜的社會與文化框架中,將她的詩與華滋華斯與迪昆西對自然 的描寫連結再一起,並探討她詩信中,對這兩位英國作家的美國知名度,以 及美國與英國,文學與旅遊之間微妙與複雜的關係,做出的呼應與改寫。跨 西洋文學關係的研究領域,目前漸漸又開始受到學者的注意。本計畫意圖藉 由檢視這三位作家的文學關聯,補足學術界對狄瑾蓀跨西洋兩岸研究的不 足,並朝跨國文學比較的新方向發展。

The project proposes to explore Emily Dickinson’s transatlantic connections with two Romantic writers, William Wordsworth and Thomas De Quincey by looking at the representations of nature in their works. I aim to examine how Dickinson’s poetic adoption, appropriation and revision of these two seminal and yet distinctly different writers inform our understanding of the intricate and complex literary and cultural relationships across the Atlantic Ocean. Dickinson‘s relation to Romanticism has been extensively discussed. Critics such as Harold Bloom and Joanne Feit Diehl point out the antagonistic relationship between Dickinson and her male precursors. Robert Weisbuch and Inder Nath Kher, alternatively, see Dickinson‘s quest poems as essentially Romantic. Scholars such as and Margaret Homans consider Dickinson‘s poems as deconstructing the binary structure embedded in the writings of her male precursors. More recently, critics such as Richard Gravil and Richard E. Brantley place Dickinson firmly in the literary tradition of Anglo-American Romanticism. The proposal continues this transatlantic dialogue by proposing to investigate the transatlantic connections of Dickinson further. I suggest looking at the literary receptions of two representative British writers Wordsworth and De Quince, and their potential impact on transatlantic tourism in mid-nineteenth New England, a time when American writers were seeking their own national identities and individual voices. Scholars such as Weisbuch and Joel Pace have discussed briefly Wordsworth’s American influences in the nineteenth century. Karen Karbiener looks at De Quincey’s American reputation as a British master of writing. However, the mixed reception of both writers in the mid-nineteenth century and Dicknson’s nuanced literary echoes with them need further investigation and critical recognition. By exploring the literary reputations of both Wordsworth and De Quincey, two antipodal and yet intimately related British writers in mid-nineteenth century New England, the project intends to fill in some existent gaps in the current scholarly perceptions of Dickinson’s transatlantic connections with Romantic writers, and potentially point towards new directions in the field of transnational comparison in nineteenth-century literary studies.