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1、摘要(乔治R吉辛是英国维多利亚时代后期的一名小说家。他的贫民窟小说以明察秋毫的笔触绘制了一副副真实的穷人和贫民窟的生活。一直以来，人们普遍认为吉辛的小说反映出他对穷人的鄙视和憎恶的态度。比如，麦尔齐奥里认为吉辛“对受压迫阶级的,僧恨多于怜悯”。又如，沙夫纳认为吉辛“看不起他们(贫苦大众)”，“彻头彻尾地蔑视(穷人)，:_本文认为吉辛憎恶穷人一说过于绝对。本文通过对吉辛的几部有代表性的小说的人物分析，提出吉辛对穷人持一种复杂的态度:他同情穷人的不幸生活，欣赏他们的优良品质，但憎恶他们的各种恶习。他甚至热切期望穷人能改掉他们的恶习。吉辛认为是贫穷导致穷人染上各种恶习。他真正憎恶的是造成贫穷以及奴役
2、穷人的罪恶的社会制度。本文还从吉辛的社会背景和个人经历中探讨了他对穷人的复杂态度的原)_AbstractGeorge Robert Gissing is a late Victorian novelist who is well known for hisslum novels. Most of his novels give a realistic description of slum life and poorpeople with penetrating details. It has been a common belief that his novelsdemonstrate hi
3、s attitude to the poor people as a kind of ignorance and hatred. Forinstance, Barbara Arnett Melchiori thinks that Gissing “shows more hatred than pityfor the oppressed“, and Raimund Schaffner claims that “Gissing looks down on them(the poor masses)“ and treats them “with utter contempt“.My thesis s
4、eeks to prove that it would be too absolute to define his attitude to thepoor as “hatred“. After investigating some characteristic poor people in his novels andhis own experience, my thesis arguess that Gissings attitude to the poor is anambivalent one: he sympathizes with the miserable life of the
5、poor, respects their finequalities, and despises their vices. He even aspires for the improvement of the poorpeoples disgraceful behaviour. It is Gissings firm belief that it is the poverty thatcorrupts the poor. What Gissing hates is in fact social injustice. He declares that it isthe society that
6、perpetuates poverty and enslaves the poor. My thesis also seeks toprove that Gissings ambivalent attitude to the poor is due to the social background ofhis times and his own unique expenenceAcknowledgementsI wish to acknowledge the help provided by the following institutions: ShanghaiInternational S
7、tudies University Library, library of College of Foreign Languages,Zhejiang University, and the Information Resource Center of the US Consulate inShanghaiIndividuals who have offered guidance in work leading to this thesis are ProfQiping Yin, Prof. Jiongqiang Zhu, and Prof. Fen GaoI am indebted to P
8、rof. John Rosenwald (Beloit College) and Prof. PierreCoustillas (University of Lille) for assistance in locating materialsChapter I IntroductionGeorge Robert Gissing (1857-1903) is a late Victorian novelist who is wellknown for his slum novels. He is a writer of relentless industry: he writes 22 nov
9、els,more than a hundred short stories, a travel book, literary criticism, and essays. He isonce “ranked with Hardy and Meredith among the leading novelists of the time“, buthis present reputation is that he is in the upper second division of late Victorianwriters. The details of his frequently miser
10、able private life have fascinated generationsof readers ever since his friend Morley Roberts published the first biography刀欧声Many details andin the book are wrong,but fortunately Gissing assiduously chronicles his own life. Moreover, the superbedition of hishis Diaa and the curious semi-fictional me
11、moirs卫Ngive us a unique and touching insight into a verydistinctive personality and the life he struggled through as a second rank novelist inlate Victorian EnglandGissing works deal with social issues. He is a perceptive and informed observerof many social problems of his day: the education of the
12、poor, the injustice lawsystem, the commercialized literature market, andso on. He is a disgnostician ofsocial problems, to。一He proposes several solutions, only to find all are futile. Gissingalways explores his subjects in his individualizedGissings slum novels are exclusively set in urban London. M
13、ost of his novelsoffer a detailed, realistic description of slum life and poor people. He deals with thelife of the poor there in remorseless and penetrating details. The best of these is Thele止er World (1889), a minute observation of the poor living conditions. TheUnclassed (1884) is one of the mos
14、t cltaracteric and it deals with a special class whichis at the bottom of the social pyramid.It has been a common belief that his novels demonstrate that his attitude to thepoor people is a kind of ignorance and hate. Jerome H. Buckley thinks Gissing“shows no interest in the tribulations of the unae
15、sthetic London poor“2. Peter Mortonthinks that Gissing deals with the slum life “in remorseless and penetrating, but notvery sympathetic, detail“. Barbara Arnett Melchiori writes that Gissing “shows morehatred than pity for the oppressed“. Raimund Schaffner claims that “Gissing looksdown on them (th
16、e masses) as an accumulation of intellectually and emotionally dull,physically and morally degenerate beings“ and treats them “with utter contempt“ vFrederick R. Karl even thinks Gissing finds poor people “dangerous, a threat tocivilized values“. Demos one of his novels, has received the most criticism whichtends to lable it as “a savage satire on working-class aims and capacities“ and it “isvirulently anti-working-class“.However, after reading some of his novels 1 find Gissings
