重訪伊莉莎白‧蓋斯凱爾的《北與南》： 一部女性遊記

Revisiting Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South: A Female Travelogue

本研究旨在重新閱讀伊莉莎白‧蓋斯凱爾（Elizabeth Gaskell）的小說《北與南》（North and South），視其為一部女性遊記。小說敘述女主角瑪格麗特從英國南方鄉村遷移到北部工業大城；之後返回出生地，又再遷居至倫敦。女主角的移動──流離──其實是一種現代性的經驗。然而，流離不見得只有負面意涵。一方面，女主角的流離動搖了「家」做為旅行終點的觀念；另一方面，蓋斯凱爾呈現女主角的能動性，挑戰旅行為男性專屬的特權。從瑪格麗特的旅行敘事中，讀者能見識到她與當地不同階級的人互動。本文結論為：瑪格麗特因為經歷家鄉變化，而體認到田園式的家園無法外於現代化過程。她的歸屬感是多元的，在於她離家的能動性，移動的經驗使她重新繪製家的認同。

This essay attempts to re-read Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South as a female travelogue. In the course of the novel, Margaret moves from the south to the north, from the rural idyll to the industrial town, then returns to the country, and later (temporarily) settles in the metropolis, London. The heroine's experience of movement is actually an experience of modernity: a sense of dislocation. Dislocation, however, should not be viewed as negative in its literal sense. On the one hand, Margaret's dislocatedness, as the consequence of her travel, destabilizes the established concept of home as the end-point of one's departure. On the other hand, Gaskell's representation of Margaret's mobility undermines the notion that travel is a masculine project, a privilege that excludes women's participation. Through Margaret's travelogue, we readers witness her interaction with the local people of different classes. The essay concludes that Margaret, with the experience of witnessing her hometown's transformative development, comes to realize that Helstone is not immune to the process of modernization. Her plural senses of belonging lie in her mobility to travel from the home, and through the experience of moving she remaps her identity in transit.