狂熱的神秘主義者：瑪麗雪萊《瓦爾佩加》中宗教審判與中世紀宗教之重塑

Abstract

本論文將瑪麗雪萊目睹了她當時的宗教辯論與對立，且熟悉中世紀義大利歷史的狀況納入考量，從而探討《瓦爾佩加》裡的中世紀元素如何被重塑。第一章審視能幫助讀者了解《瓦爾佩加》的雪萊當代文學和宗教世界。藉由細微地研究結構不平等與觀念上的競爭，我將解析天主教、衛理公會、宗教狂熱在十八十九世紀英國的脈絡。此章也將探究小說中的志異模式，以表明雪萊如何將普遍認知中的中世紀呈現為一種相互矛盾且兼具傳統和批判性版本的中世紀。我還會說明雪萊對威廉·葛德文、瑪麗·渥斯東克麗芙特、珀西·雪萊宗教思想的汲取，以證明她書寫小說時對宗教帶有複雜的視角。第二章介紹《瓦爾佩加》所處的中世紀晚期，並藉由探討特定的浪漫時期手法來深入挖掘中世紀主義，以追溯雪萊對中世紀事物的預期與了解。此章挑出宗教審判與異端，當作小說裡兩個特出的中世紀元素，為的是清楚解釋決定了波西米亞的薇荷米娜、馬菲妲、碧翠絲人生的審判文化和異端歷史。第三章處理小說最後的中世紀特出元素——神秘主義。我的神秘主義研究涵蓋經驗與背景體系，藉此審視尤塔內夏與碧翠絲神秘經驗的特定敘事，並且指認她們與歷史參照點的相似之處，以及揭露影響中世紀女神秘主義者的靈性記述與活動的社會條件。闡述兩位主角的神秘主義的同時，我也問題化敘事者的視角以及兩位女主角之間的對話。

This thesis investigates how medievalist features are refashioned in Valperga in the circumstance that Mary Shelley has witnessed religious debates and antinomies in her time and been familiar with the medieval history of Italy. Chapter One surveys Shelley’s contemporary literary and religious world that facilitates readers’ comprehension of Valperga. Eighteenth-and nineteenth-century contexts of Catholicism, Methodism, and enthusiasm in Britain are explicated through a close-up study of their structural imbalance and conceptual competitions. The Gothic mode in the novel is examined to show how Shelley presents a contrastively conventional and critical version of the received Middle Ages. Shelley’s engagement of the religious thoughts of William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Percy Shelley is also unpacked to show her nuanced perspective on religion in writing the novel. Chapter Two introduces the late medieval world where Valperga is set and delves into medievalism, through an investigation of the specifically Romantic approaches, to trace Shelley’s expectation and understanding of the medieval. The Inquisition and heresy are singled out as two prominent medievalist features in the novel to shed light on the inquisitional culture and heretical history which determine the life of Wilhelmina of Bohemia, Magfreda, and Beatrice. Chapter Three addresses the last prominent medievalist feature in the novel—mysticism. My study of mysticism covers both the experiential and the contextual framework to examine specific narratives of the mystical experiences of Euthanasia and Beatrice and, with historical references, identify their similarities and expose the social conditions that affect the spiritual accounts and activities of medieval mystical women. In the midst of the exposition of the two protagonists’ mysticism, the narratorial perspective and the conversation between the two heroines are also problematized.