瑪格麗特˙柯芬蒂詩《威廉˙柯芬蒂詩傳》和《炫麗異世界》回應夫婿威廉˙柯芬蒂詩於英國內戰期間「受苦、損失和厄運」之互文性

Intertextuality between Margaret Cavendish’s Life of William Cavendish and The Blazing World in Response to William Cavendish’s“Sufferings, Losses, and ill-Fortunes”in the Civil Wars

本文旨在探討十七世紀英國女性作家瑪格麗特．柯芬蒂詩如何透過其傳記《威廉．柯芬蒂詩傳》(1667)和小說《炫麗異世界》(1666)裡的寓言章節，來回應其夫婿在英國內戰期間所遭逢之政治、軍事和財務厄運，以凸顯兩文本之間的互文關聯性。筆者深入分析柯芬蒂詩在兩部文本中對「財富／時運」(fortune)、「誠實／坦率」(honesty)、「審慎」(prudence)、「愚蠢」(folly)和「輕率」(rashness)等詞的使用。柯芬蒂詩宣稱撰寫《威廉．柯芬蒂詩傳》之目的乃在於坦誠說出真理，以反駁他人對其夫婿的不實歷史記載及批評；而在《炫麗異世界》裡，她將自己矛盾的情感投射到不同的寓言角色身上，上演關於該順從夫婿命令耐心噤聲，還是跟隨自己內心渴望公開揭露敵人卑鄙惡行，兩者之間的心理拉扯。柯芬蒂詩引用其夫婿對財富時運的看法，挪用傳統上描繪命運女神為任性、無常且難以預測的比喻，似乎將其夫婿的不幸完全怪罪在擬人化的命運女神身上，並在《炫麗異世界》中對該角色大肆嘲諷。本研究顯示，柯芬蒂詩在傳記寫作中塑造出自己遵循傳統社會規範的溫順妻子公眾形象，然而藉由「寓言面紗」的掩飾，她冒險踏入性別與自主的爭議領域，提供了對高壓壓迫父權意識形態的微妙批判。

This essay aims to explore the intertextual connections between Margaret Cavendish’s biography of her husband, Life of William Cavendish (1667), and the allegorical section of her prose fiction The Blazing World (1666) in presenting Cavendish’s responses to her husband’s political, military, and financial misfortunes during the English Civil Wars. I analyze Cavendish’s use of the terms“fortune,”“honesty,”“prudence,”and“rashness”across both texts. In Life of William, Cavendish proclaims her intention to honestly speak the truth against the false histories and criticisms about her husband. In The Blazing World, she projects her conflicting emotions onto different allegorical characters, vividly dramatizing her psychological tug-of-war between obeying her husband’s directive of maintaining patient silence and following her inclination of exposing the malevolence of their dishonorable enemies. Embracing her husband’s views on“fortune,”Cavendish exploits the traditional trope of the capricious, inconstant, and unpredictable Goddess Fortune. In The Blazing World, she seems to attribute her husband’s misfortunes solely to the personified Fortune, whom she vehemently satirizes. My research reveals that in her biographical writings, Cavendish appears to cultivate her public persona as a submissive, dutiful wife, conforming to traditional social norms. However, through the“veil of allegory,”she ventures into the contentious realms of gender and autonomous agency, potentially offering a subtle critique of the oppressive patriarchal ideology.