夏洛特・史密斯《移民》及《比奇角》中的和平預言

Abstract

本文旨在檢視十八世紀的英國作家夏洛特・史密斯（Charlotte Smith）如何運用地質學的視角，在《移民》（The Emigrants）和《比奇角》（Beachy Head）兩首詩作中展望和平的願景。這兩部作品書寫於法國大革命以及拿破崙戰爭期間，當時英國正深陷拉基火山（Laki volcano）爆發的餘波盪漾還有社會動亂中。儘管先前已有許多相關研究討論史密斯「疏離的愛國主義」（alienated patriotism）如何作為其獨特的戰爭辭令，大部分的研究仍著眼於史密斯個人生活中遭逢的苦難如何形塑這樣的修辭。本文希望延續前人對於史密斯戰爭修辭的討論，並以地質學的視角出發，提出新詮。本文認為蘇格蘭地質學家詹姆斯・赫頓（James Hutton）所提出的深時（deep time）和均變論（uniformitarianism）兩概念，形塑史密斯獨特的國家觀，並幫助她建構旨在消弭英法兩國之間長期敵對狀態的預言詩學。 本論文一共有三個章節。第一章爬梳史密斯和赫氏地質學的關聯，試圖從史密斯對於伊拉斯達謨斯・達爾文（Erasmus Darwin）《植物園》（The Botanic Garden）中的一卷書《植物的經濟》（The Economy of Vegetation）的大量援引，建立史密斯和赫頓的連結。接著，本章揭示史密斯之所以深受赫氏地質學吸引，是因為赫頓將地球視為特定原則運作下的產物，而非全然皆由機率變化所促成——一種近乎如同預言般的地球形成觀。第二章將《移民》置於深時的視角下，拓展威廉・古柏（William Cowper）在《任務》（The Task）一書當中提出以日曆時間為基礎的預言規模，並揣摩流亡經驗在深時中的樣態。該章節指出，在地和外地的疆界在深時中逐漸消解。據此，史密斯鼓勵法國移民重新審視本土和外地的分野，也呼籲英國國人揚棄深植於他們心中的例外主義（exceptionalism）。最後一章討論史密斯如何透過赫頓的均變論在《比奇角》一詩中展望和平。透過該理論視角，史密斯將侵蝕解讀為帶來更新、而非毀壞的作用力，並將其擬為衰敗－復興的隱喻。藉此，史密斯描繪侵蝕－更新的自然循環是如何重塑薩塞克斯（Sussex）的戰爭遺跡，將其翻新為家園地景。不僅如此，史密斯還從侵蝕－更新的自然循環中，發展出一種兼容非在地居民及非人物種的生態關懷。本文以二十一世紀的人文地理學者尼格爾・克拉克（Nigel Clark）的倡議作結。克拉克為人們應該對受到地球的災變而流亡者展現好客之情（hospitality）。而史密斯將地質學的洞見鑲嵌進社會政治批評的做法深具前瞻性，呼應了克拉克面臨當前生態危機所提出的警示。

This thesis examines how the eighteenth-century British writer Charlotte Smith (1749-1806) envisions peace from a geological perspective in The Emigrants (1793) and Beachy Head (1807). These two poems were written when England was mired in the repercussions of the Laki volcano eruption and social upheaval during the French Revolution (1787-99) and the Napoleonic Wars (1801-15). While numerous studies have been dedicated to Smith’s “alienated patriotic” wartime rhetoric, they have mainly ascribed it to her personal suffering. This thesis seeks to redress this lacuna by critically studying how Smith appropriates insights from geology to mold a poetic vision. This thesis argues that James Hutton’s concepts of deep time and uniformitarianism help her foster a unique mode of prophetic poetics, one that aims to alleviate existing and long-term hostilities between England and France. By integrating geological insight into her political and historical writings, Smith creates a new form of wartime rhetoric that seeks to reconcile the opposing parties. Structurally, this thesis comprises three chapters. Chapter One traces Smith’s relationship with Huttonian geology. This chapter first fleshes out Smith’s special interest in Huttonian geology through her extensive references to Erasmus Darwin’s The Botanic Garden (1791), particularly the book The Economy of Vegetation (1791). Subsequently, this chapter argues that Huttonian theory draws Smith’s attention because of its prophecy, which characterizes the earth as a product operated upon by natural laws instead of probabilities. Chapter Two places The Emigrants under the lens of deep time to enlarge the prophetic model proposed by William Cowper in The Task (1785) and offer a new mode of exile. By highlighting the blurred boundaries between the local and the foreign in deep time, Smith proposes a means of helping the French émigrés adapt to a new environment and asks the Britons to lay aside their British exceptionalism. My last chapter contends that Smith conceptualizes peace through Hutton’s uniformitarianism in Beachy Head. With the insights drawn from uniformitarianism, Smith interprets the force of decay as a precondition to renewal, renovating the war relics into a domestic landscape. Moreover, Smith furthers this circular process into an environmental sensibility that cares for non-local residents and non-human species. Merging geological insights into her socio-political works, Smith anticipates Nigel Clark’s advocacy for extending hospitality to those displaced by the earth’s planetary revolutions.