Abstract:

Scholars have spent considerable time grappling with the erratic sequence of events that comprise Redcrosse’s regeneration or spiritual rebirth in book 1 of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. While they have recognized the ecumenical dynamics of the knight’s spiritual progression, they have not accounted for the way in which his rebirth includes pitfalls and setbacks that disrupt its order. This article turns to early modern Protestant regeneration treatises—religious works that center on the topic of rebirth— to find a discourse that characterizes regeneration as an uneven process, which includes false starts and stops along the way to salvation. Reading through the lens of that discourse, we can see how Redcrosse’s peripatetic pricking through Faeryland depicts a recursive rebirth punctuated by episodes of false regeneration that erroneously start and stop his spiritual growth. Ultimately, Spenser demonstrates romance’s compatibility with Protestant allegory by using the circuitous narrative structure of the knight’s quest to metaphorize the recursive nature of rebirth. Indeed, the haphazard movement of the knight “pricking on the plaine” deftly allegorizes the backsliding, digression, and delay associated with regeneration.

摘要：

学者们花费了大量时间来应对一系列不稳定的事件，包括埃德蒙·斯彭瑟（Edmund Spenser）的《仙境女王》（The Faerie Queene）第1书中的雷克罗斯（Redcrosse）的重生或精神重生的事件。。尽管他们已经认识到骑士精神发展的普遍动力，但他们并没有考虑到骑士重生的方式包括会扰乱骑士秩序的陷阱和挫折。本文转向早期现代的新教徒再生专着（以重生为主题的宗教著作），找到一种话语，将再生描述为一个不平衡的过程，包括在救赎过程中的错误开始和停止。通读这种话语的镜头，我们可以看到雷德克罗斯（Recrosse）穿过仙灵（Faeryland）的蠕动刺刺是如何描绘由错误的再生而造成的递归重生，错误的再生错误地开始和阻止了他的精神成长。最终，Spenser通过使用骑士探求的circuit回叙事结构来隐喻重生的递归本质，证明了浪漫主义与新教寓言之间的兼容性。的确，骑士“随便穿刺”的随意运动巧妙地暗示了与再生相关的后退，离题和延误。