Historians have tended to focus on propaganda when assessing Edwardian attitudes towards Germans, but a shift of focus to fiction reveals a rather different picture. Whereas propaganda created the cliché of ‘the Hun’, fiction produced non- and even counter-stereotypical figures of Germans. An analysis of German governess characters in a selection of short stories, performances, novels, and cartoons indicates that the Edwardian image of Germans was not purely negative but ambivalent and multifarious. Imagined German governesses appeared as patriots and spies, pacifists and warmongers, spinsters and seducers, victims and evil-doers. A close look at characterisations by Saki [H. H. Munro], M. E. Francis [Margaret Blundell], Dorothy Richardson, D. H. Lawrence, Radclyffe Hall, Frank Hart and others reveals not only their variety but also their metaphorical use as responses to Germany’s aggressive militarism and avant-garde modernity. Each governess figure conveyed a positive, negative or ambivalent message about the potential impact of German militarism and modernity on England and Englishness. The aggregate image of German governesses, and by inference Germans, was therefore equivocal and demonstrates the mixed feelings of Edwardians toward their ‘cousin’ country.

中文翻译：

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爱德华时代流行文化中虚构的德国家庭教师：英国对德国军国主义和现代性的回应

历史学家在评估爱德华时代对德国人的态度时倾向于关注宣传，但将焦点转移到小说上会揭示出完全不同的画面。宣传造就了“匈奴”的陈词滥调，而小说则产生了非刻板印象甚至反刻板印象的德国人。对一系列短篇小说、表演、小说和漫画中的德国家庭教师角色的分析表明，爱德华时代的德国人形象并非纯粹是消极的，而是矛盾而多样的。想象中的德国家庭教师以爱国者和间谍、和平主义者和战争贩子、老处女和诱惑者、受害者和作恶者的身份出现。仔细观察 Saki [HH Munro]、ME Francis [Margaret Blundell]、Dorothy Richardson、DH Lawrence、Radclyffe Hall、弗兰克·哈特 (Frank Hart) 和其他人不仅揭示了它们的多样性，还揭示了它们作为对德国侵略性军国主义和前卫现代性的回应的隐喻用途。每个家庭女教师都传达了关于德国军国主义和现代性对英格兰和英国的潜在影响的积极、消极或矛盾的信息。因此，德国家庭教师的整体形象以及根据推断德国人的形象是模棱两可的，表现出爱德华时代对其“表亲”国家的复杂感情。