大眾前的「私我」: 論維多利亞時期生命書寫

Abstract

維多利亞時期產生浩瀚繁複的生命書寫作品，以當時特殊文筆寫成，不僅富 含的第一手史科，供研究著考證、對照，表現立傳者本身特有的思想及風格，也 考驗挑戰現代讀者的理解力。本文首先分析傳記、自傳、小說文類交會與模糊界 限，並舉狄更斯、馬緹諾與達爾文為例，探究傳者本身特殊的立場，所形成的敘 事觀點，聚焦在生命書寫中的隱諱議題，諸如童年苦難、緋聞或爭議性的題材，探究當時描述語言中之尺度、禁忌、委婉說法、及自我反觀等種種呈現手法，從歷史或事件紀實到生命意義的解釋等多層面向來觀察維多利亞時期生命書寫代 表性的特色原則。

The Victorian culture created a solid body of narratives as well as close shorthand sketches by those who were eager to tell their own life stories and first-hand experience, acclaimed intimate friends and families of famous people and those who were more private with no intention to publish their accounts at first. The vast bulk of recollections, reminiscences, memories, biographies and autobiographies (including fictional autobiographies and autobiographical fictions) with claimed faithfulness and respect form a cauldron of information, even disguises and purposefully false information. Victorian life writings challenge modern readers`understanding of the floating definitions of the genre. The article takes the life writings of Charles Dickens, Harriet Martineau and Charles Darwin as examples to observe how the fictional and the factual are mixed in Victorian life writings, to see how Victorian biographers and autobiographers dealt with affairs or controversies, to see through the hidden, the twisted and distorted parts to get glimpses of the realistic, and to recognize what`s been omitted, manipulated, or altered in consideration of their public images.