艾莉·格里菲斯的侦探小说系列中的莎士比亚典故与国家身份.pdf

Shakespearean Allusions and National Identities inElly Griffiths Ruth Galloway BooksLisa Hopkins Abstract I In Shakespearean Allusion in Detective Fiction,I argued that in Golden Age detectivefiction,“Sometimes DCI Shakespeare is assigned to border patrol.Above all,he isused to negotiating between the English and the Germans,and the question of whatShakespeare and Englishness mean to each other becomes particularly pressing whenDCI Shakespeare enlists.In more recent years,however,Shakespeare has been usedto insist on other ways of differentiating and demarcating Englishness.In this paper,Ilook specifically at how Shakespearean allusions have been mobilised in EllyGriffiths Ruth Galloway books,a series of detective fiction which started in 2009 andis still ongoing.I argue that there are two kinds of intercultural engagement at work,one connected to the embedding of allusion to early modern plays within atwenty-first century novel and the other generated by the books interest in migration,invasion,and encounters between different cultures.Elly Griffiths is in fact apseudonym for Domenica di Rosa,who is,as the name suggests,of Italian origin butborn and brought up in England,giving her a culturally liminal position on the edgeof two different kinds of heritage,and the crimes featured in the books are oftenliterally liminal in that they involve bodies buried on the edge between sea and land.They are also typically connected to stories of invasion and migration,andShakespearean allusion is put into sustained and telling dialogue with concern aboutethnicities,identities,and the weight of the past on the present.For Griffiths,Shakespearean allusion is a way of drawing out the resonances of her novels,but alsoof reminding her readers of how braided and hybridised national and culturalidentities can be.Key Words I Shakespearean Allusions;national identities;Elly Griffiths;Ruth Galloway books艾莉格里菲斯的侦探小说系列中的莎士比亚典故与国家身份丽莎霍普金斯【摘要】在侦探小说中的莎士比亚式暗示一文中，笔者认为在黄金时代的侦探小说中，“有时DCI莎士比亚被分配到边境巡逻最重要的是，他被用来在英国人和德国036人之间进行谈判；当DCI莎士比亚人伍时，莎士比亚以及英国性对彼此意味着什么的问题变得尤为紧迫”。然而，近年来，莎士比亚已经常被用来作为其他方式来区分和划分什么是英国性。本文中，笔者特别关注莎士比亚的典故是如何在EllyGriffiths的RuthGalloway系列书中被运用的。RuthGalloway是始于2 0 0 9年的一系列侦探小说，至今仍在持续更新，有两种跨文化因素在起作用。一种是与2 1世纪小说中嵌人的对早期现代戏剧的暗示有关，另一种是由书中对移民、人侵和不同文化间遭遇的兴趣产生的。EllyGriffiths实际上是DomenicadiRosa的笔名，顾名思义，DomenicadiRosa有着意大利血统，但在英国出生和长大，这使她处在两种不同文化传统的边缘。她书中所描述的犯罪也通常是文学性的边缘地带，因为它们涉及埋在海陆边缘的尸体。它们通常也与人侵和移民的故事有关，并且莎士比亚式的暗示被投人到持续的、有说服力的对话中来呈现对种族、身份和过去对现在的影响的关注。对Griffiths来说，莎士比亚式的暗示是一种勾勒出她小说引起共鸣的方式，同时也提醒她的读者，民族和文化身份是多么错综复杂。【关键词】莎士比亚典故；国家身份；艾莉格里菲斯；侦探小说In Shakespearean Allusion in Detective Fiction,I argued that in Golden Age detective fiction,“Sometimes DCI Shakespeare is assigned to border patrol.Above all,he is used to negotiate betweenthe English and the Germans,and the question of what Shakespeare and Englishness mean to each otherbecomes particularly pressing when DCI Shakespeare enlists.In more recent years,however,Shakespeare has been used to insist on other ways of differentiating and demarcating Englishness.Iwant to look specifically at how Shakespearean allusions have been mobilised in Elly Griffiths RuthGalloway books,which focus on a university lecturer in forensic archaeology who lives in Norfolk andhas a complicated on-off relationship with a married detective chief inspector called Harry Nelson.Illargue that there are two kinds of intercultural engagement at work,one connected to the embedding ofallusion to early modern plays within a twenty-first century novel and the other generated by the booksinterest in migration,invasion,and encounters between different cultures.Elly Griffiths is in fact a pseudonym for Domenica di Rosa,who is,as the name suggests,ofItalian origin but born and brought up in England,giving her a culturally liminal position on the edgeof two different kinds of heritage,and the crimes which Ruth and Nelson investigate are often literallyliminal in that they involve bodies buried on the edge between sea and land.They are also typicallyconnected to invasions(by the Beaker Folk,the Romans,the Anglo-Saxons,the Vikings,and by asmall party of German soldiers during the Second World War)and also to stories of refugees andmigrants,and in all these cases the authors attitude is notably liberal.The events of The Lantern Menunfold in the shadow of Brexit-Ruth thinks that if she turns on Radio Four she may hear“The News,perhaps,Corrie Corfield making even the Brexit negotiations sound comforting(334-335)andperhaps because of that broadens its range of interest,introducing Detective Sergeant Tony Zhang andhaving Ruth reflect that“In China dying is called going west(329).The next book,The NightHawks,was published in February 2021,when the UK was in its third coronavirus lockdown,andincludes two deaths caused by a vaccine and David Browns theory that“just a few hundred years037after the arrival of the Beakers,only ten percent of the native population remained.Neolithic Britonswere wiped out.Its my theory that it was a plague.A new virus brought by the Beakers from CentralEurope(21);however any suggestion of blaming China is deflected by the fact that strontiumisotope analysis of the bones of the potential Beaker person points to him being from Poland(255),and in the same book Ruths father remarries“a woman of colour(82).As well as having a liberal sensibility,the books are often comic in tone,with Ruth and Nelsonsupported by a cast of likable regulars including a part-time druid,Ruths annoying head ofdepartment(who once played Juliet at his all-boys school),and a ravishingly beautiful EnglishLiterature lecturer called Shona who is Ruths best friend.It is Shona who first smugglesShakespeare into the stories.In thefirst book in the series,The Crossing Places,Nelson shows Ruthsome anonymous letters he has received over the years in connection with the disappearance of achild.One contains the sentence“A man may see how the world goes with no eyes(59-60)and thefourth,addressed“Dear Harry for the first time rather than“Nelson,begins“A little touch ofHarry in the night.How wise Shakespeare was,a shaman for all time(60);finally the letter datedHalloween begins“Now is the time when the dead walk.Graves have yawned and yielded up theirdead(64).Ruth“recognises the Bible and Shakespeare,of course(66);she makes a list headed“Literary and topped by King Lear,Henry V and Julius Caesar(68).She wishes she had Shona forsome of the other references(66),but this wish backfires,for later“When she iooks at Shonasbookshelves and sees T.S.Eliot nestling next to Shakespeare she thinks of the Lucy Downey letters(188)and realises that Shona must have been involved in helping the anonymous writer.In a muchlater book,The Night Hawks,David Brown says The good is oft interred with their bones.Wedid Julius Caesar at school.I was Mark Anthonyand the narrator tells us that Ruth“distrustspeoplewhoquote Shakespeare.Shonas always doing it(167).Shona is not,however,the only person who quotes Shakespeare;indeed the narrators ownvoice occasionally does so.In the second book in the series,The Janus Stone,“The diver appears aminute later,carrying a skull carefully on the flat of his hand.He looks like an actor playing Hamletin an experimental production(Shakespeare meets Beckett perhaps?).Ruth takes the small skull inboth her hands(lll).Later in The Janus Stone there is a diary entry for 2o June(these arenameless and dateless;only at the close do we discover that they are by Roderick Spens and dateback to the 1950s):I am tired.Sometimes I just want to lie down and sleep and forget everything.By a sleep to say weendtheheartache.Hamlet Act 3,scene 1.To die,to sleep;To sleep,perchance to dream:Ay,theres the rub.(163)Finally Ruth,in danger from Roderick Spens,tells Nelson that he is the real ringslinger:“Ruthknows its a long shot but maybe Nelson would be sufficiently intrigued to Google Ringslinger andfind the Danish king,the grandfather,according to Erik,of Hamlet(298).She is creatively usingherknowledge of Viking mythology to counter Roderick Spenss familiarity with the classics,butthe allusion also implicitly invites the reader to frame other events in the book in terms provided by038Hamlet.When we read that“Roderick looks quite hurt.Im not mad,he says.Ive got a first inclassics from Cambridge(287)we may condemn his ludicrous egotism,but we may also start tothink about what actually constitutes madness.Similarly we might think about the prince ofDenmark when Nelson hears the gunshot and jumps in the river even though“He has no idea wherehe is going,he just knows that he cant stand to wait for one second longer,a useless bystander,hearing sounds of gunfire and doing nothing(314).He fears to find Ruth in the water like Ophelia,a scene which Griffiths repeatedly evokes:in The Ghost Fields“Alice is silent for a moment,looking into the distance.Theres a poster over her desk showing a girl floating in water,flowers allaround her(277),and in The Stone Circle,Judy notes that in Shonas office“There are pictures too,a poster of woman drowning in flowers(Ophelia?)(42).Equally,though,we might notice thatNelson himself is the opposite of Hamlet,never introspective and always in action,and we mightalso connect the allusion with the books interest in parents and children:“Ah,fathers and sons.Reginald Wilson glances at his son,working industriously on the marble,its sides shining in the light from the fire.“Thats what its all about,isnt it?Passing the business on toyour son.Thats the only reason why any of us do it.(240)For Nelson,though,there is a different priority:Fathers and daughters,that is the phrase that keeps running through Nelsons head(320).The uses to which Griffiths puts these Shakespearean allusions are fundamentally connected tothe series interest in the relationship between the present and the past.Nelson and Judy are bothCatholics,a confessional identity which The Woman in Blue reminds us was once universal inEngland(in The House at Seas End,“The notice board proclaims the church as Anglican but,asJudys Irish Catholic father would say,It was ours once175);Cathbad is a Druid,aligning himwith pre-Roman Britain.In addition,Ruth,Nelson,Cathbad and Frank are all immigrants toNorfolk,and questions of immigration and indigenous identities are hotly contested in the books.InThe Janus Stone Trace,who is later revealed to be Roderick Spenss granddaughter,says“TheRomans brought law and order and infrastructure.We were nothing but a band of disparate warringtribes until they came along(198-199),but there is a much more negative view of colonialism andempire-building when Nelson almost immediately afterwards explains that“Walter Spens built thehouse on Woolmarket Road.He was,by all accounts,rather an eccentric.Had a collection of stuffedanimals and liked to dress as an African chieftain(200).(Matters are not improved when wediscover that Walter Spenss grandson had a school on Waterloo Road and made his children speakin Latin at mealtimes.)In The House at Seas End,which like The Janus Stone has a son who mustdecide whether to cover up the sin of his father,Nelson thinks“Never trust a man who flies theUnion Jack(43),the plot directly centres on invasion.This is presaged when Ruth looks at theskeletons buried on the beach and imagines one as“A tall man(the long bones show that),blond-haired with a jutting chin.A Viking,she thinks,though she knows this is historically unlikely(49).Later Archie Whitcliffe explains that the Home Guard went out at night“looking for invaders039(105),and on one occasion they found some and shot them in what Dieter Eckhart identifies as“aBritish war crime(129).Dieter himself almost immediately becomes the victim of another crimewhen he is shot by Craig,partly because of his investigation of events during the war-Craigsays“I had to protect my grandfathers memory(356)-and partly because he is dating ClaraHastings,whose surname suggests the last time Britain was invaded.Craig says“Cant have aHastings marrying a German,destroying that fine English bloodline(360),but when IreneHastings says“My job was to shoot the children and shoot myself(201)and Nelson points out theparallel with Frau Goebbels,the distinction between the Germans and“the English collapses.Afurther perspective is introduced by Tatjana,Ruths Bosnian friend whose child and parents weremassacred by Serbs,who says Im sure the Celts were pragmatists too.When your land is invaded,you tend to be(171).And once again the narrative is pointed by references to fathers:Nelson thinks“Christ,why are people always talking about fathers?(189)and later“has his ownsuspicions.Could Superintendent Whitcliffe be the father of Marias little boy?(384).The ideacontinues into A Room Full of Bones,where Nelson says“Its always the dads fault(322),and wherechanging circumstances and sensibilities are once again registered:Gone with the Windis the favouritefilm of Nelsons mother Maureen(73),but Over the last few years,a great number of refugees fromEastern Europe have come to settle in Kings Lynn.Its customary for the press,and some policeofficers,to blame every crime on the new arrivals.Nelson knows its his job to stamp on such talk(76).It is in Dying Fall that Shakespearean allusion is first put into sustained and telling dialoguewith concern about ethnicities,identities,and the weight of the past on the present.The liberalCathbad may maintain that“Theres no such thing as pure-blood English(188),but Ruth“remembers Dans diaries and the letters calling him an upstart Jew(284)and Clayton Henrysays of the White Hands attitude to King Arthur,“They call him the White King,the High King.They wouldnt want him associated with the Romans.They see the Romans as foreigners,invaders(173).Comically,the DNA of the bones which the members of the White Hand believe to be thoseof King Arthur identify him as having a parent born in North Africa,and the book also introducesthe black detective sergeant Tim Heathfield,who towards the end“thinks about Pendragon andabout Dan Golding and Clayton Henry.None of these men were fathers,unless you count Henrysstepdaughter(379).This prefigures Tims own story arc,which culminates in the uncertainty overwhether Michelles baby will prove to be his or Nelsons,but it is also connected to allusions tothree Shakespearean tragedies which deal with fatherhood:“The raven himself is hoarse thatcroaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements,says Lady Macbeth.And,of course,that visit went spectacularly well(53);“Ruth finds herself looking at one picture in particular.Dan is examining the skull,which is lying on a tarpaulin by the trench.There is somethingHamlet-like about the pose and certainly,in retrospect,something almost tragic about Dans bowedhead(294);and“So many stories involve the appearance of an unknown other,the strangerwhom nobody recognises.Who is the third who walks beside you?Christ on the road to Emmaus.Poor Tom on the blasted heath(315).The first of these is obviously about Macbeth,a play in04