The Pilgrimage Metaphor of the Canterbury Tales－－Religious Journey, Nature and Culture

《坎特伯里故事集》中朝聖之隱喻－－宗教之旅、自然與人文

本文探討喬叟呈現在《坎特伯里故事集》中的環境意識。朝聖在傳統上是出世的隱喻，象徵基督徒的靈魂邁向救贖的歷程，如《天路歷程》中的朝聖一樣。然而，朝聖卻是一種本質上與土地有深刻關聯的特定宗教活動。喬叟所描寫的朝聖並非寓言式的旅程，而是明確的發生於四月某一天的一段從Southwark到Canterbury的當地旅行。喬叟特意以寫實的人物、時間與地點，刻畫一段俗世的朝聖旅途，暗示宗教的真理亦不能脫離現實的具體經驗。此種兼具世俗與宗教涵意的隱喻反映了喬叟的環境意識，以及人文與自然、人類與土地之間的深刻關聯。本研究引用深度生態學與巴赫汀的時空觀理論，探討喬叟對自然環境的敏銳觀察。以深度生態學的觀點而言，喬叟所描寫的朝聖整合了自然與人文，如同《坎特伯里故事集》一開始即開宗明義的將宗教活動(朝聖者)與大自然(雨、風、花、鳥)連結一樣。

This paper examines Chaucer’s environmental consciousness informed in the pilgrimage metaphor of the Canterbury Tales. Representing the Christian soul’s progress toward salvation, pilgrimage is traditionally an otherworldly metaphor, such as the one in Pilgrim’s Progress. Nevertheless, pilgrimage is a particular religious practice which is essentially connected to the land. Distinctively the pilgrimage that Chaucer portrays is not an allegorical but a specific local journey from Southwark to Canterbury on certain day in April. Chaucer’s depiction of the pilgrimage is deliberately secular, with realistic characters, timing and locale, implying that even religious truth cannot be separated from the physical experience on earth. The ambivalently secular and religious metaphor conveys Chaucer’s environmental consciousness and the essential tie between culture and nature, humanity and the earth. In this study of the pilgrimage metaphor, the emphasis is laid on Chaucer’s sensitivity toward the environment, in terms of deep ecology and Bakhtin’s theory of chronotope (that is, time and space) -- the connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships expressed in literature. In light of deep ecology, Chaucer’s use of the metaphor integrates nature and culture, as the opening of the Canterbury Tales significantly links nature with the religious activity, that is, rain, wind, flowers, birds with pilgrims.