ABSTRACT

When Edgar Lee Masters wrote his obituary of small-town provincialism, Spoon River Anthology (1916), the literary movement known as the ‘revolt from the village’ was becoming increasingly defined. Writers like Mary Austin, Willa Cather and, later, Sherwood Anderson penned desolate portraits of rural America, disturbing the nineteenth century idyll of small-town America in favour of a community space ‘caught between industrial progress and gradual oblivion’ (Honaker Herron, 1971). This article explores rural confinement, spatial determinism, and psychological unfulfillment in Masters’ text, all of which are borne directly of Spoon River’s physical and metaphorical isolation. The spatial construction of Masters’ community will be scrutinised, tracing in its pastoral subversion and funereal conceit of the cemetery a melancholy commentary on small-town provincialism. Through consideration of the river as a physical and spiritual barrier, I will conclude that Masters’ text provides a rural portrait in which the small town is entirely beholden to this naturalistic symbol. By considering the various writers and ideologies that run concurrently with Masters, it will be contended that in this particular meeting of waters rural America becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate. Its inhabitants instead grow stagnant, the people embittered, and, in their narratives, a ‘buried life’ (Channell Hilfer, 1969) is dredged up from the silt.

摘要

当埃德加·李·马斯特斯（Edgar Lee Masters）撰写他的关于乡镇自治的ob告时，《汤匙河文集》（1916年），被称为“乡村叛乱”的文学运动日趋明确。玛丽·奥斯汀，威拉·凯瑟（Willa Cather）和后来的舍伍德·安德森（Sherwood Anderson）等作家写下了荒芜的美国乡村肖像，扰乱了19世纪美国小城镇的田园诗，转而主张建立一个“介于工业发展与逐渐遗忘之间的社区空间”（Honaker Herron，1971 ）。本文探讨了Masters著作中的农村禁闭，空间确定性和心理不适，所有这些都直接由Spoon River的物理和隐喻隔离所承担。大师社区的空间建设将受到审查，其墓地的田园颠覆和葬礼的自负与对小城镇省主义的忧郁评论相吻合。通过将河流视为物质和精神的屏障，我将得出的结论是，大师们的文字提供了一张乡村肖像，小镇上完全依赖于这种自然主义的象征。通过考虑与大师同时运作的各种作家和意识形态，可以争辩到，在这次水域会议中，美国乡村变得越来越难以谈判。相反，它的居民变得停滞不前，人们感到不安，在他们的叙述中，从淤泥中疏通了“埋葬的生活”（Channell Hilfer，1969）。