珍‧芭克《給仕女的拼布屏風》：曼式諷刺傳統之女性散文小說

Jane Barker’s A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies: Female Prose Fiction in the Menippean Tradition

本論文旨在探討珍‧芭克散文小說《給仕女的拼布屏風》（1723）中的諷刺文類特徵。筆者主張該文本的形式「雜揉」乃顯示出其與男性曼式諷刺傳統的密切關聯性。芭克以創新手法採用「拼布屏風」之隱喻將文本敘事框架中看似鬆散的嵌入故事緊密縫合在一起。此隱喻與諷刺文類一字源定義有關：即拉丁文lanx satura，意指「在宗教儀式中獻給神祇的混雜水果盤」。這兩種隱喻皆指明一件作品中包含混雜多樣的元素，此乃曼式諷刺文類之關鍵特徵。芭克於文本中所創造之「和諧的茶几娛樂」與巴赫汀小說理論之「眾聲喧嘩」形成強烈對比。巴赫汀強調對話聲音或語言之相互競爭本質，而身為女性作家的芭克則強調和諧之重要性，儘管其拼布屏風之隱喻蘊含了內容與敘事聲音之異質性。筆者在芭克《給仕女的拼布屏風》文本中所探討的其他曼式諷刺文類元素尚包括：混合散文與詩歌形式、嵌入各種文類、創造多重聲調與風格，以及使用諷刺討論會，在其中來自社會上各行各業的人們齊聚一堂，針對某特定時事議題或哲學概念發表其個別獨特意見。筆者亦檢視文本中自然與鄉村天真無邪與倫敦市普遍道德淪喪之隱含對比模式，正呼應古典諷刺文類中的「諷刺場景」。本論文藉由分析芭克散文小說中的諷刺元素，企圖對進一步建構相對於／相關於男性諷刺傳統之女性散文諷刺傳統有所貢獻。

This paper aims at exploring the generic features of satire in Jane Barker’s prose fiction A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies (1723). I argue that the formal “hybridity” of the text attests to its affinity with the masculine tradition of Menippean satire. Barker innovatively adopts the metaphor of “a patch-work screen” as a device to sew up the otherwise loosely connected inset stories within the frame narrative. Such metaphor is associated with one etymological definition of satire: lanx satura in Latin, which literally means “a platter of mixed fruits offered to gods in religious ceremonies.” Both metaphors denote the mixture of a variety of elements in one piece of work, which is a crucial feature in Menippean satire. Barker’s use of the “harmonious Tea-Table Entertainment” also forms a sharp contrast with Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of “heteroglossia” in the novel. Whereas Bakhtin emphasizes the contesting nature between dialogic voices or languages, Barker as a female writer underscores the significance of harmony despite the heterogeneity of the content and narrating voices in the metaphorical patch-work. Other characteristic elements of Menippean satire that I have investigated in Barker’s text include: the mixture of prose and verse, the incorporation of various inserted genres, the creation of multi-tones and multi-styles, and the use of the convention of the satiric symposium in which all sorts of people from different walks of life are brought together to offer their distinctive opinions on certain topical issues or philosophical concepts. I also examine the implicit pattern of nature and country innocence as opposed to universal depravity in the City of London, which is reminiscent of “satirical scene” in classical satire. By mapping out the Menippean features of Barker’s prose fiction, this paper will contribute to the more ambitious project of formulating a female tradition of satirical prose fiction as opposed to and in relation to the masculine one.