鄉間別墅的使用：二十世紀英國作家對田園生活風貌的維多利亞式描寫

The Use of the Country House: 20th Century British Writers’ Continuing Victorian Depiction of the Rural Lifestyle

維多利亞文學與二十世紀現代小說之間的轉變趨勢，展現了風格的迥異及對於早期題材描述手法的不同。之後在二十一世紀的英國作家卻尋求及創新自己與眾不同之風格，而且與前人所不同之觀點。然而本文旨在說明田園鄉間別墅此一題材，遠從維多利亞時代後期到現代、甚至是後現代時期，皆貫穿於英國文學。本文藉由幾位主要之維多利亞時期及現代的作家所撰寫十九和二十世紀田園背景之作品，加以驗證鄉間別墅是英國文化認同的基石，不受限於時間的改變。

The movement from Victorian novels to the modernist novels of the 20th Centurydemonstrates a divergence from the styles and treatment of themes of the earlier period. TheBritish writers after the turn of the century sought to etch out their own style to distinguishthemselves; they sought to explore different perspectives than that of their predecessors.However, it is the stance of this paper to show that one theme, or perhaps element; that of therural country house remains generally consistent in English literature from the later Victorianperiod through the modern and even into the contemporary post-modern novels of today.Chosen works from major authors of the Victorian and modern periods are used todemonstrate depictions and uses of this rural environment to support the conclusion that thecountry house and the mindset connected with this perception is a fixed part of the Britishidentity not subject to the changing times.