"The Despotism of Fashion": Conspicuous Consumption in Frances Burney's Cecilia

「時尚潮流的專橫」：談法蘭西絲柏尼《西希莉亞》中奢華鋪張的消費行徑

陳麗青(Li-Ching Chen)

《NTU Studies in Language and Literature》 18期 (2007/12) Pp. 1-35

https://doi.org/10.6153/2007.18.01

摘要

根據尼爾麥肯卓克於《消費者社會的誕生：十八世紀英國之商業化》書中所指，十八世紀英國不僅目睹了「消費者革命」，並以其多樣化及新興的消費行爲著稱。事實上，英國對外貿易擴張與工業革命，不僅促使國家財富急速增加，對當時人們的生活，也造成巨大的改變。此外，國外引進的異國風格商品及最新時尚的新奇事物、國內製造的多樣性消費產品、加上快速拓展串連的工廠及商店網絡，使得喬治時期的人們，無論階級高低，皆可享有前所未見得以嚮往及購買生活基本必需品、符合個人地位物品、甚至於奢侈品的權利。這些外在因素激發當時人們的物慾，並促使其競相仿效上流社會奢華鋪張的消費行爲。
本文首先探究十八世紀英國時尚及奢華鋪張消費行徑間複雜的相互關係，並進一步指出兩者於當時所引起的道德爭論。本篇論文主要目的在於檢視法蘭西絲柏尼如何在其第二部小說《西希莉亞》中，針對此一飽受爭議的問題－當時倫敦社會盛行之奢華鋪張的消費行徑－提出她的看法。本文將探討下列議題：柏尼如何藉由社交時尚界和化裝舞會間類比的描繪與呈現，而使得當時社交時尚界的表裡不一無所遁形？柏尼如何看待時尚對當時人們行爲及生活所產生的影響？以及，柏尼如何對當時仕女行爲指南所描述之自我犧牲的慈善行爲提出質疑？此外，柏尼所想望的理想幸福人生究竟爲何？

關鍵字

法蘭西絲柏尼 ； 西希莉亞 ； 時尚 ； 奢華鋪張的消費行徑 ； 社交時尚界 ； 化裝舞會 ； 慈善行爲 ； 節約 ； 自主 ； 利己

並列摘要

Eighteenth-century England, as Neil McKendrick claims in The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England (1985), witnessed ”the consumer revolution” and was well known for its variegated and newly invented consumption practices. In fact, in England the expansion of trade and industrial revolution gave a boost to the national coffers and brought tremendous changes to the lives of eighteenth-century English people. Exotic commodities and novelties of the latest fashion were imported from countries worldwide while numerous consumer goods were produced domestically. Together with the speedily expanding network of factories and shops, the Georgians, both high and low, were allowed an unprecedented privilege to yearn for, and to purchase, not only necessities, but also decencies and even luxuries, which spurred on their acquisitiveness and led to emulative spending and conspicuous consumption.
This paper first looks into the subtle interplay between fashion and conspicuous consumption in eighteenth-century England and points out the controversy aroused over these two subjects during the period. It aims to examine how Frances Burney (1752-1840) addresses the issue of conspicuous consumption, a London fashion of her time, in her second novel, Cecilia (1782). It also explores how Burney presents the duplicity of fashionable life by pointing out the analogy she draws between the world of fashion and the masquerade, and further investigates the extent to which this celebrated eighteenth-century novelist considers that fashion may affect one's manner and behavior. Finally, it shows how Burney challenges the central role self-sacrifice plays in the advice offered to women in Georgian conduct books on charity, and examines her ideal of human felicity.

並列關鍵字

Frances Burney ； Cecilia ； fashion ； conspicuous consumption ； the world of fashion ； masquerade ； charity ； economy ； autonomy ； self-love

參考文獻

Allen, Charles.,Pam Morris. (Ed.)(1760).The Polite Lady, or a Course of Female Education in a Series of Letters, from a Mother to her Daughter. Conduct Literature for Women, 1720-1770.London:Pickering and Chatto.

Backsheider, Paula R. (eds),John J. Richetti,(eds)(1996).Popular Fiction by Women 1660-1730: An Anthology.Oxford:Oxford UP.

Burney, Frances (d''Arblay),Peter Sabor(Ed.),Margaret Anne Doody.,Introd. Margaret Anne Doody(1782).Cecilia; or Memoirs of an Heiress..Oxford:Oxford UP.

Burney, Frances,Lars E. Troide. (Ed.)(1988).The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney.Oxford:Clarendon.

Burney, Frances(1988).The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney.Oxford:Clarendon.