Edith Wharton's Proximate Intimacies: Object Mediations in an "Age" of Social Distance

IF 0.1 0 LITERATURE, AMERICAN
Melanie V. Dawson
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Abstract:As nineteenth-century etiquette books remind their readers, the basic principles of social life meant maintaining a clear and insulating space around corporal forms. Amid such normative expectations, Wharton's characters move through material worlds richly populated with objects, many of which are alluringly textured. This essay argues that a number of these objects were charged with additional associative meanings, based on the persons with whom they are most closely aligned, often their owners. Such material items become what I describe as the "proximate objects" that fascinate Wharton's characters, not only because of their sensual appeal, but also because of their combined physical availability and association with other human forms. For characters in fictions such as The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, and The Reef, proximate objects have the capacity to mediate human desires by providing a sense of an appropriately distanced but nevertheless material intimacy with another person as they stand in for human forms that must remain socially distanced from one another. Revealing the dynamic and sensual dimensions of the material world, the haptic encounters experienced by Wharton's characters offer insight into the materiality interwoven with human desire.
伊迪丝·华顿的《近距离亲密:社会距离“时代”的客体调解》
摘要:19世纪的礼仪书籍提醒读者,社交生活的基本原则是在身体形态周围保持一个清晰和隔离的空间。在这种规范的期望中,沃顿笔下的人物穿梭于充满各种物品的物质世界,其中许多物品的纹理都很诱人。本文认为,这些物品中的一些被赋予了额外的联想意义,这是基于与它们最密切相关的人,通常是它们的主人。这些物质物品变成了我所说的“近似物体”,吸引了沃顿笔下的人物,不仅因为它们的感官吸引力,还因为它们的实际可用性以及与其他人类形态的联系。对于《纯真年代》、《伊桑·弗罗姆》和《暗礁》等小说中的人物来说,近似的物体有能力通过提供一种适当的距离感来调解人类的欲望,尽管这种距离感与另一个人有物质上的亲密感,因为它们代表了人类必须彼此保持社交距离的形式。沃顿的人物所经历的触感接触揭示了物质世界的动态和感性维度,为人类欲望交织在一起的物质提供了洞察力。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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Edith Wharton Review
Edith Wharton Review LITERATURE, AMERICAN-
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