The Eighteenth-Century Women's Economy and Property: Maternal Inheritance in Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall
學年 113
學期 2
出版（發表）日期 2025-06-01
作品名稱 The Eighteenth-Century Women's Economy and Property: Maternal Inheritance in Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall
作品名稱（其他語言）
著者 呂虹瑾,林嘉鴻
單位
出版者
著錄名稱、卷期、頁數 淡江外語論叢 43, P.1-21
摘要 Women in 18th-century England had limited economic means and property that could not be passed down. The laws and social customs of the time generally considered women to be relying on a male relative, father, brother or husband. This dependence put women at a considerable economic disadvantage, especially when it came to inheriting property. Mary Wollstonecraft once discussed the education and economic status of women at that time, believing that one of the plights of women was that family-focused female education prevented women from successfully obtaining financial resources outside the family. Regarding this issue, Sarah Scott, an English female novelist from the mid-eighteenth century, also elaborated on women's economic issues in her novels. Scott is a writer concerned with economics, including that of women and the notion of inheritance, whose utopian novel, the famous Millenium Hall (1762), also particularly addresses these issues. The novel is about a female community's management and economic problems. Millenium Hall tells of an idealistic community founded by six women who pool their resources and successfully establish a self-sustaining commune. This article interprets the community's structure under "Symbolic Order of the Maternal" of Luce Irigaray, which shows how women create an independent symbolic reality based on mutual aid and shared economic structures, thereby subverting male-dominated discourse. Moreover, the community's collective property management and democratic decision-making embody Nancy Fraser's "Redistributive Justice," addressing both material inequality and cultural recognition by fostering inclusivity and dignity for all members. The novel thematically probes diverse economic avenues for women, such as inheritance, marriage, personal skills, and vital community mutual aid. The novel also develops the crucial concept of "maternal inheritance," which extends beyond economic transfer to encompass the transmission of virtues and exceptional abilities, thereby reinterpreting women's historical narratives. By exploring a range of mother-daughter relationships, Scott demonstrates how daughters can reclaim and revise their mothers' pasts, challenging societal stereotypes and positioning women as active historical agents who shape history. 在十八世紀的英國，女性的經濟地位和財產繼承權是受到嚴重限制的。當時的法律和社會習俗普遍認為女性應該依賴男性親屬，無論是父親、兄弟還是丈夫。這種依賴性使得女性在經濟上處於極大的劣勢，尤其是在財產繼承方面。瑪麗．沃斯通克拉夫特曾對當時女性教育和經濟狀況作出論述，認為女性困境之一是側重家庭的女性教育讓女性無法順利獲得家庭以外的經濟來源。對此議題，同為十八世紀中葉的英國小說家也在其小說中闡述女性經濟的議題。這些女性經濟和繼承的議題也出現在知名的英國小說家莎拉．史考特的知名烏托邦小說中，《千禧大廳及鄰近鄉村的描述》（1762）探討了女性社區的經營和經濟問題。《千禧大廳》小說描繪了一個由六位女性創立的烏托邦式社區，透過合併她們的財產，創建了一個自給自足的社區。本文透過露絲．伊瑞葛萊的「母性象徵秩序」來詮釋該社群的結構，展示女性如何透過互助與共享經濟結構，創造出獨立的象徵性現實，進而顛覆男性主導的話語權。此外，該社群的集體財產管理與民主決策體現了南希．弗雷澤的「再分配正義」，透過促進所有成員的包容性與尊嚴，同時解決了物質不平等與文化認同的問題。小說也探討了女性多元的經濟途徑，包括繼承、婚姻個人技能與工作，以及重要的社群互助與慈善援助。小說亦發展「母性繼承」的關鍵概念，超越單純的經濟財產轉移，進而涵蓋美德與卓越能力的傳承，重新詮釋女性的歷史敘事。透過不同的母女關係，史考特呈現女兒角色如何重塑與修正其母親的過去，挑戰社會刻板印象，並將女性定位為塑造歷史的積極歷史主體。
關鍵字 women's economy ； maternal inheritance ； Sarah Scott ； A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent (Millenium Hall)女性經濟 ； 母性繼承 ； 莎拉．史考特 ； 《千禧大廳及鄰近鄉村的描述》（簡稱：千禧大廳）
語言 en
ISSN
期刊性質 國內
收錄於 Airiti Library Taiwan
產學合作
通訊作者 呂虹瑾
審稿制度 是
國別 TWN
公開徵稿
出版型式 ,電子版,紙本
相關連結

機構典藏連結 ( http://tkuir.lib.tku.edu.tw:8080/dspace/handle/987654321/128354 )