Women and London Poverty in L. T. Meade’s The Princess of the Gutter and Margaret Harkness’s In Darkest London

Women and London Poverty in L. T. Meade’s The Princess of the Gutter and Margaret Harkness’s In Darkest London

藉由比較密德女士（L. T. Meade）於1894 年出版的《貧民窟公主》（Princess of the Gutter）及瑪格麗特‧哈克尼絲（Margaret Harkness）於1891 年出版的《前進黑暗倫敦》（In Darkest London）這兩本長期受忽視的貧民窟小說，本篇論文指出女性行善在通俗小說與社會主義小說這兩種寫實文類中有不同之呈現。雖然兩位小說家對於中產階級女性的貧民窟經驗皆有正面刻畫，但對於貧窮與階級衝突這兩大議題卻抱持不同態度。密德女士的通俗小說流露傳統的中產階級意識形態，對於貧窮與階級衝突雖能表達理解與同情，但無法深入批判，並且對於貧富差距之看法與解決亦過於樂觀。而本身也是社會調查家的哈克尼絲則是從社會主義觀點出發，具體呈現勞動階級對於貧窮的觀點，並能對當時的階級對立提出較為深刻之批判。

This paper explores how female philanthropy as an important theme is tackled by L. T. Meade and Margaret Harkness, two long ignored women writers of fin de siècle realistic slum novels. While both writers represent middle-class women’s positive experience in the slum, their attitudes toward poverty and class conflicts are nevertheless divided. A popular novel targeting at mass readership, L. T. Meade’s 1894 The Princess of the Gutter is dominated by a bourgeois ideology that shows understanding and sympathy toward the proletarian yet fails to criticize the social injustice that causes poverty. On the other hand, a social investigator and a serious realistic writer, Margaret Harkness represents the viewpoint of the working-class on poverty and approaches class conflicts through the lens of a critical socialist in her 1891 In Darkest London.