What is Woman Unprotected?: Frances Burney's "The Wanderer" and the Quest for Benevolent Patriarchy

未受保護怎是女人？：法蘭西絲柏妮的《流浪者》與對慈善父權社會的探求

林宜蓉(Yi-Rung Lin)

《小說與戲劇》 21卷2期 (2012/04) Pp. 1-31

摘要

法蘭西絲柏妮在《流浪者》一書中對父權社會與女性的解放顯得相當矛盾，因為她在讉責父權社會對女性所設下種種限制的同時，又渴望父權的保護。透過艾莉絲／苿麗亞的四處流浪，柏妮揭露了社會對婦道的要求為女性帶來無數的束縛，但是，她也藉著嘲諷反女主角艾莉諾來讉責過度的女性解放。不過，當柏妮提出艾德蒙柏克在1790年的著作《法國大革命的省思》中所闡述的慈善父權社會作為改善種種殘害女性社會弊病的解決之道時，這個矛盾就不存在了。這是因為在這種理想的政治體系下，臣民雖服侍君主但卻享有自由與尊嚴，而統治者則以慈善與尊重治理天下。應用於家庭倫理中，慈善父權帶來善待女性的承諾，同時仍受到女性的自願服從。柏妮在尚未能接受革命意識型態，但又不認同殘酷的父權社會之際，提出一個理想的慈善父權社會，如此一來，女性雖得服從男性的權威又得遵守婦道，但卻不會因此犠牲她們的自由或尊嚴。本文探討柏妮如何化解她對父權主義的堅定信仰及爭取女性尊嚴與自由之間似乎存在著的衝突。

關鍵字

慈善父權社會 ； 婦道 ； 保護 ； 革命 ； 雅客賓

並列摘要

Frances Burney shows great ambivalence toward patriarchy and women's liberation in The Wanderer (1814), for she condemns the restrictions imposed on women by patriarchal society and yet embraces paternalistic protection at the same time. Through Ellis/Juliet's wanderings, Burney exposes the endless limitations that society's expectations of female propriety creates for women in the novel while busily renouncing the excesses of female emancipation at the expense of the anti-heroine Elinor. However, this seeming contradiction disappears when Burney proposes benevolent patriarchy, much in the vein of Edmund Burke's exposition in the Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), as the antidote to all kinds of social ills surrounding women. This is because under this utopian political system subjects have freedom and dignity in servitude and rulers govern with charity and respect. Applied in the domestic sphere, benevolent patriarchy promises women's decent treatment while commanding their voluntary submission. Not ready for the revolutionary ideology nor approving of oppressive patriarchy, Burney manages to steer a middle way by urging benevolent patriarchy, under the reign of which women idealistically submit to men's authorities and abide by the rules of feminine propriety without suffering any deprivation of liberty or respect. This study explores how Burney reconciles the seeming conflict between her conviction in patriarchal rule and her advocacy for dignity and freedom in women's treatment.

並列關鍵字

benevolent patriarchy ； feminine propriety ； protection ； revolution ； Jacobin

參考文獻

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Anderson, Emily Hodgson(2005).Staged Insensibility in Burney's Cecilia, Camilla, and The Wanderer: How a Playwright Writes Novels.Eighteenth-Century Fiction.17(4),629-48.

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Bilger, Audrey(1998).Laughing Feminism: Subversive Comedy in Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Austen.Detroit:Wayne State UP.