A Historical Study on the Origins of the Apprentice Novel of Charles Dickens

查尔斯·狄更斯的一些小说经常被描述为成长小说的样本。然而，通过卡尔耶翻译歌德的威廉·梅斯特而从德国引进的这一体裁的想法，在评估狄更斯小说错综复杂的底层因素时，很难起到启发作用，甚至是有用的。在这项研究中，学徒小说被苏珊娜·豪用来等同于成长小说，被重新定义为一种体裁，可以追溯到英国小说本身的诞生。如果《学徒》被简单地重新定义为代表学徒形象的小说，那么它的起源可以追溯到伊丽莎白时代的城市喜剧。这位学徒有一种特殊的分裂性格。他是新兴资本主义社会不可或缺的一部分，牢牢地融入了伦敦金融城商人阶层的行会结构。另一方面，他经常被那些在他体内工作的颠覆性力量所吸引。他通常是一个来自农村的年轻人，容易受到城市的诱惑，比如放荡的女人，酗酒和玩耍。他可以爬上社会阶梯，成为上议院市长，但他也可能陷入颓废的深渊。简而言之，学徒是一个巴赫蒂尼狂欢节的人物，文明和颓废的力量正努力在其中占据主导地位。从这个意义上说，女主人公也可以被视为学徒。通过追溯学徒的形象，从伊丽莎白、雅各布和复辟戏剧到小说的兴起，很明显，学徒小说处于英国小说伟大传统的核心。

Some novels of Charles Dickens have often been described as specimens of the Bildungsroman. However, the idea of the genre that was imported from Germany through the translation of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister by Carlye can hardly be illuminating, even useful, in assessing the intricate substrata of Dickens's fiction. In this research the Apprentice Novel, a term used by Susanne Howe as equivalent to the Bildungsroman, is redefined as a genre dating from the birth of the English Novel itself. If the Apprentice Novel is redefined simply as fiction representing the figure of the apprentice, its origins can go back as far as the city comedies of Elizabethan era. The apprentice has a peculiarly divided character. He is an integral part of the emergent capitalist society, firmly incorporated into the guild structure of the merchant class of the City. On the other hand, he is often attracted to those subversive forces that are at work inside his body. He is usually a youth coming from the country and is susceptible to the lures of the city such as loose women, drinking and playing. He could go up the social ladder and be a Lord Mayor, but he could also fall into the abyss of decadence. In short the apprentice is a figure of Bakhtinian carnival in which the forces of civilization and decadence are striving to dominate. In this sense female protagonists can also be regarded as apprentices. By tracing the figure of the apprentice through Elizabethan, Jacobean and Restoration drama to the rise of the novel, it has become apparent that the Apprentice Novel is located at the heart of the great tradition of the English Novel.