Revisiting the Images of the Wounded Soldiers and the Rhetoric of War in Early Modern England

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Title:	Revisiting the Images of the Wounded Soldiers and the Rhetoric of War in Early Modern England
Authors:	徐東河
Contributors:	中國文化大學
Keywords:	戰爭痛楚近代英國軍人戰爭經驗戲劇
Date:	2010-07-01
Issue Date:	2012-05-17 12:03:33 (UTC+8)
Abstract:	十六世紀末至十七世紀初的英國社會，對外征伐西班牙，對內征服愛爾蘭，見證了戰爭給社會生活帶來的巨大的影響，從而湧現出了一大批以戰爭為題材的大眾戲劇。飽受戰爭的英國人在鼓吹愛國主義的同時，傷兵的出場也體現了戰爭的殘酷，就像莎士比亞的歷史劇中勇猛的軍人形象。而本文認為，大眾文化作品或大眾戲劇裏出場的傷兵，不僅傳遞著戰爭的傷痛，還揭示了社會的動盪。本文從探討戰爭所帶來的痛楚的歷史視角出發，觀察以傷兵為人物角色的大眾戲劇，研究重塑傷兵形象的過程和從中反映的文化和社會意義。通過本文，作者認為，在近代戰爭中，傷兵沒有受到戰爭英雄的待遇，而被驅向社會邊緣，究其原因，在於近代戰爭的描繪中沒有明確區分傷殘和畸形。把畸形視為一種道德淪陷的社會文化價值觀，以同樣的視角批判了從戰場歸來的傷兵，而這種先入為主的價值觀，阻礙了傷兵的獻身行為被社會所認同。 During the later years of Elizabeth I's reign, as well as being at war with Spain, England continued to deal with armed rebellion in Ireland. Given these historical contexts, it is clear that the frequent literary or stage portrayal of English soldiers is the product of a time when the threat was all too real. Contrary to stereotypes that represent valiant English soldiers, the images of wounded soldiers in literature and on stage were used not as an expression of patriotism but as an expression of social anxiety. The purpose of this paper is to look at the historical background which influenced the way in which the late sixteen-century Englishmen viewed the wounds of war, and relate it to the images of wounded soldiers in the late sixteenth-and seventeenth-century English drama. In doing so, I argue that because of contemporary culture's obscured notion of the differences between disability and deformity, the wounded soldiers had no clearly defined social category, and, as a result, were reduced to the edge between military and civilian life. Representations of the wounded soldiers on the early modern English stage offer us a glimpse into one aspect of the process of overturning a long established cultural and social view of their wounded bodies.
Relation:	華岡英語學報 16期 P.189-209
Appears in Collections:	[Department of English Language and Literature ] Hwa Kang English Journal

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