| 摘要: | 在與珍‧奧斯汀同時期或是更早些年的小說中，極少將真實與虛構之間中錯綜複雜的相互關係穿插進書中討論過。奧斯汀於1801年到1806年待在巴斯（Bath）的期間，由德國劇作家柯慈步（August von Kotzebue）所寫的《私生子》（The Love-Child，原文為Das Kind der Liebe），被英國女劇作家英奇博德（Elizabeth Inchbald）改寫和翻譯為《海誓山盟》（Lovers’ Vows），並在當時巴斯的皇家劇院（Theatre Royal）上演了十五次。柯慈步時常在劇中描寫貧賤墮落的女人來挑戰一般傳統對女人的期待，奧斯汀不僅透過小說介紹《海誓山盟》這部戲並將劇中情節和角色與她的小說《曼斯菲爾莊園》（Mansfield Park）相互交織映襯，也藉此機會討論諸如女人是否有權利選擇自己的丈夫，以及身為一個父親如何對孩子們行使教育的職責等問題。選擇《海誓山盟》這部戲作為小說的結構性對稱，突顯出奧斯汀對女人在追求愛情的主動性與婚姻的自主性有著極大的興趣。
小說中的角色們在戲劇排演時，除了互相較勁與評論同伴間所飾演的男女角色外，諸如禮節、外貌或是性格上的缺點等也是常見的話題。演戲不僅讓一般人戲劇化自身的特性與人格，同時也暴露其潛在的人格上缺失。小說透過陳述戲劇排演的手法突顯戲劇性與真實性間的界線逐漸模糊，乃至引發倫理上的不當關係，例如使男女間的不倫之戀更加明朗化。德國戲劇引進英國小說之中則是反映了當時跨文化力量的影響。
對大部分的讀者來說，《曼斯菲爾莊園》似乎展現出奧斯汀對戲劇展演的反對；但是觀察奧斯汀與家人間常在信件中討論戲劇的現象，似乎她並沒有完全反對戲劇展演的風氣。對英國戲劇文化的熟稔促使奧斯汀企圖透過小說的寫作喚醒大眾其中潛藏的危險：她希望女性讀者們可以藉由閱讀小說去學習如何判斷，而不是盲目效法戲劇中的角色。
藉由跨領域研究，我的論文希望藉由分析奧斯汀時代的戲劇與小說間的互文性，揭露奧斯汀為了評議社會與女性的道德標準，而刻意將有爭議的戲劇題材放入她的小說創作中。本論文引進文化研究興盛之後衍生出來的新觀點與資料，進一步用精細的文本分析去做比對，希望能提供更精彩的剖析與見解來嘉惠日後的研究者。
The interaction between a German play and the novel was unique in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. When Austen stayed in Bath, Lovers' Vows by the German dramatist Kotzebue, translated and adapted by Elizabeth Inchbald, was performed 15 times at the Theatre Royal. As the degenerated and poor women in Kotzebue's play always challenged the traditional expectation of women, Austen plotted Lovers' Vows into her novel Mansfield Park for considerations of issues about women's right to choose their husband, and fathers' responsibility for children. The choice of Lovers’ Vows signals Austen's interest in women's autonomy in courtship and matrimony. The choice and actual writing of the German play into an English novel reflect the force of intercultural influences. To most readers, Mansfield Park seems to show Austen's rejection of the theatre, but the discussion of theatre in Austen's letters seems to reveal the opposite: familiarity with the theater culture in the English society motivated Austen to uncover the evils and benefits the contemporary drama might bring to the public, which she hoped female readers may learn through novel reading, instead of imitating roles in the play. While novel characters rehearse, they not only dramatize their own personality, but also comment on fellow actors, such as propriety, appearance, or foolishness, which again reflect their own character. In this way, theatricality and reality are interwoven and blurred; the former shedding light on the latter. My thesis is a cross-genre study, borrowing the theatrical knowledge of Austen's time to explain the intertextuality between the novel and the drama to justify Austen's intention of bringing a controversial subject matter into her novel writing, which actually gives a moral judgement of the social environment and women's conduct. |
