Shakespearean Retellings and the Question of the Common Reader: Tales from Shakespeare and Yinbian Yanyu

Abstract

這篇論文對比兩個出自漫長十九世紀（1789-1914）重述莎士比亞戲劇的英文及中文文本：藍姆姊弟於1806年出版的《莎士比亞故事集》和林紓於1904年與魏易對譯的《吟邊燕語》。這兩個文本皆是莎士比亞不同讀者群的入門讀物：前者是針對英格蘭兒童而寫、後者則是為中文成人讀者而撰。 此文以跨文化的角度來分析與細讀這兩個文本如何超越它們各自第一讀者群而來虛構與塑造不同地域背景和文化歷史現代化與大眾化過程裡的「普通讀者」。此文檢視這兩個文本的重述者如何運用故事集的敘述形式來呼喚理想中所謂的「普通讀者」。此文並特別分析這兩個文本對於《暴風雨》一劇的重述，細讀米蘭達和波斯普羅這兩個角色如何化成不同文化格局裡「普通讀者」的替身及代表。此文最後由全球性的角度來思考這兩個文本如何跨出「英國」與「中國」的閱讀框架而同時參與全球文本與文學的流動史。

This essay juxtaposes two texts of Shakespearean retelling from the long nineteenth century: Charles and Mary Lamb`s 1806 Tales from Shakespeare and Lin Shu`s adaptive translation into Chinese of that collection in 1904, Yinbian Yanyu. Each text served influentially as a primer or introduction to Shakespeare addressed primarily to English and Anglophone children, on the one hand, and Chinese adults, on the other. In so doing, each text, I argue, performs the work of imagining and making the ＂common reader＂ in different local contexts and moments of historical and cultural transformation beyond the texts` appeals to their ostensible primary addressees. I examine how each set of retellers manipulates the form of the tale collection to address and fashion an imagined ＂common reader,＂ and I compare the retellings of one play, The Tempest, to show how the characters of Miranda and Prospero emerge as respective figures or surrogates for the common reader. In turning to a global context, I consider how the texts` mediations and interpellations participate in-as well as complicate- the processes of global textual production and circulation.