论《红字》前言《海关》一文的创作目的

霍桑的名著《红字》出版后曾引起轰动,这与作者为该书精心创作的前言——《海关》的宣传效果是不可分割。试从《红字》创作的政治历史背景,《红字》出版时的商业背景以及《红字》主题可能引发的道德责任三方面入手分析该前言,以揭示出霍桑创作前言的真实目的,是想以政治爆料为噱头,吸引大批读者,提升《红字》销量的同时,通过塑造一个"编辑者"的叙述者形象,巧妙地规避了《红字》主题可能引发的道德责任,从而达到商业文学和艺术文学的完美平衡。

Hawthorne's Real Intention of Writing The Custom-House

The publication of The Scarlet Letter not only caused a sensation,but also created a landmark in the American literary history.The huge success was largely due to The Custom-House——a deliberately written introduction of the novel.This essay researches on the political and historical backgrounds of the novel's creation,the commercial background of its publication and the moral obligation attached to its theme,so as to reveal Hawthorne's real intention of writing The Custom-House,that is to make use of political exposure to attract a large number of readers and ingeniously evade the moral obligation attached to the novel's theme by creating a narrator with the image of an "editor",thus striking a perfect balance between popular success and literary quality.