本論文旨在分析英國小說家珍‧奧斯汀如何將書信體巧妙地運於用其小說《傲慢與偏見》的敘事結構之中；並特別著眼於文本分析，以探討書信體技巧如何在敘事過程中扮演舉足輕重的角色。雖然《傲慢與偏見》並非書信體小說，但文本中的確融入了為數可觀的書信體元素。尤其主角們魚雁往返間所傳遞的訊息經常是故事發展的主軸，並進而成為引動情節前進的敘事關鍵。除了書信內容具有重要性，作者亦透過主角們對於書信不同的解讀與反應，深刻鮮明地刻劃出小說中人物性格，更呈現了敘事的多元樣貌。另外值得注意的是，珍‧奧斯汀對於書信體技巧的重視與靈活運用絕非偶然，而是其自幼深受十八世紀書信體文學傳統的薰陶所致。經由廣泛的閱讀，珍‧奧斯汀全然領略並精準地掌握書信體技巧的精髓。此外，就如同同時期的作家，像是芬妮‧伯尼與瑪麗亞‧埃奇沃斯，珍‧奧斯汀也曾嘗試以創作書信體小說初試啼聲。其於少女時期的所創作的書信體諷刺小說展露作者嫻熟自如地運用十八世紀書信體文學傳統，並加以融會貫通，從而醞釀珍‧奧斯汀的獨特風格。即便珍‧奧斯汀後期作品不再以書信體小說為創作主軸，但書信體敘事技巧卻仍然在她六部知名小說中扮演重要的角色，其中《傲慢與偏見》則是最為顯著的例子。

This thesis will examine Jane Austen’s ingenious use of the epistolary mode in Pride and Prejudice and will focus on how epistolary activities in this novel function as an important plot device to generate the narrative.  While Pride and Prejudice is not an epistolary novel, Austen included many letters in this work.  Correspondence carries much of the narrative load in Pride and Prejudice.  Letters in Pride and Prejudice inhabit a fully developed rhetorical system that offers wide interpretative space and which illustrates influence of the epistolary tradition of the eighteenth century.  As a proficient reader, Austen absorbed the essence of this style and then shined at writing novels incorporating epistolary elements.  Like her predecessors, Fanny Burney and Maria Edgeworth, Austen was fully aware of the viability and value of the epistolary form and she wrote epistolary satires in her juvenilia.  Although Jane Austen did not pursue her early experiments with the letter-form, switching from epistolary to third person narrative, she uses letters as a plot device in her six major novels and among these, an extraordinary amount of correspondence occurs throughout Pride and Prejudice.

Introduction	                                    1
Chapter One: Jane Austen and the 
             Eighteenth-Century Epistolary Novel      17
   i.Jane Austen and Eighteenth-Century 
     Literary Fashions	                           17
   ii.Samuel Richardson and the Cult of 
     Sensibility	                                    23
   iii.Samuel Richardson and His Epistolary Art       25
   iv.Juvenilia: Burlesque Beginnings	        28
   v.Jane Austen’s Epistolary Fiction	        32

Chapter Two: The Epistolary Devices in Pride 
             and Prejudice	                          46
   i.Volume One: The Pursuit of Happiness	        50

Chapter Three: The Epistolary Devices in Pride 
               and Prejudice	                 68
   i.Volume Two: The Fog of Misunderstanding	        69
   ii.Volume Three: The Last Piece of the Puzzle      92

Conclusion	                                   101

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