英文摘要 |
Eighteenth-century England, as Neil McKendrick claims in The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England (1985), witnessed “the consumer revolution” and was well known for its variegated and newly invented consumption practices. In fact, in England the expansion of trade and industrial revolution gave a boost to the national coffers and brought tremendous changes to the lives of eighteenth-century English people. Exotic commodities and novelties of the latest fashion were imported from countries worldwide while numerous consumer goods were produced domestically. Together with the speedily expanding network of factories and shops, the Georgians, both high and low, were allowed an unprecedented privilege to yearn for, and to purchase, not only necessities, but also decencies and even luxuries, which spurred on their acquisitiveness and led to emulative spending and conspicuous consumption. This paper first looks into the subtle interplay between fashion and conspicuous consumption in eighteenth-century England and points out the controversy aroused over these two subjects during the period. It aims to examine how Frances Burney (1752-1840) addresses the issue of conspicuous consumption, a London fashion of her time, in her second novel, Cecilia (1782). It also explores how Burney presents the duplicity of fashionable life by pointing out the analogy she draws between the world of fashion and the masquerade, and further investigates the extent to which this celebrated eighteenth-century novelist considers that fashion may affect one’s manner and behavior. Finally, it shows how Burney challenges the central role self-sacrifice plays in the advice offered to women in Georgian conduct books on charity, and examines her ideal of human felicity. |