史考特、史帝文生與流行視覺文化：羅曼史書寫裡的文本與意像

Scott, Stevenson and Popular Visual Culture: Text and Image in Romance Writing

近期有關羅勃特‧路易斯史帝文生一生及作品的研究旨趣，每每仔細剖析他的小說《綁架》、《大衛貝福》、《巴倫特雷的少爺》如何師法前輩，華特‧史考特的《威弗利》、《羅柏羅伊》、《米特魯信之心》、《芮剛雷特》等著名的蘇格蘭羅曼史作品。因為史帝文生曾在與親友魚雁往返的書信、及〈淺談羅曼史〉與〈我的第一本書：金銀島〉這兩篇文章中，提及他對史考特的看法，這也促進二者的比較研究。然而，近年來Barry Menikoff、Jenni Calder及Alison Lumsden等學者，對史考特兩人個別作品均曾深入探討，亦多指出縱然史帝文生毫無疑問地在風格與主題上經常追隨史考特，但他亦盡力試圖要在風格與目的上和史考特這位「浪漫文學之王」有所區別。本文探究史帝文生兩人浪漫作品中流行的強烈意象，並釐清此一爭論。本文比較兩位作者如何在作品中吸收當代流行視覺文化，以及他們作品被繪製成的插畫等多元面向。史帝文生認同讀者視覺印象，他自己也展現這類視覺天賦。這兩位作者都被當代的流行視覺化模式所深深影響，例如畫作、書中插畫、劇場、全景畫（尤其以史考特為例）與攝影（以史帝文生為例）。然而，他們卻有不同的創作意圖，且將這些影響導向不同的效果。本文將檢視他們如何透過書寫來利用流行視覺文化且對其造成影響。

Recent critical interest in the life and works of Robert Louis Stevenson has led to closer analyses of Stevenson's literary debts to his country-man and forbear, Sir Walter Scott. The two writers are inevitably connected as Scotland's iconic writers of Scottish romance stories:”Waverley”,”Rob Roy”,”The Heart of Midlothian and Redgauntlet”by Scott;”Kidnapped”,”David Balfour”and”The Master of Ballantrae”by Stevenson. Comparisons between the two are further encouraged by Stevenson himself, who constantly referes to Scott in correspondence to friends and family, and famously in his essays”A Gossip on Romance”and”My First Book: Treasure Island”. However, closer analyses of their respective works by Barry Menikoff, Jenni Calder and Alison Lumsden in recent years have established that although Stevenson certainly owes debts to Scott in terms of style and subject matter, he was also at pains to differentiate his style and purposes from ''the king of the romantics. '' This paper will contribute to one aspect of this debate, the prevalence of strong imagery within their romance writing. It will attempt to draw parallels between the ways in which both authors absorbed various aspects of c culture popular visual culture within their work, and how each author subsequently became illustrated. Stevenson identifies the strength of the visual impressions that Scott leaves his readers, and this is a talent he shared. Both authors were heavily influenced by contemporary modes of popular visualization, such as painting, book-illustration, theatre, panoramas (in Scott's case) and photography (in Stevenson's). However, both channelled these influences to different effect, and for different purposes. This paper will examine how Scott and Stevenson both utilized and subsequently influenced popular visual culture through the writing process.