本文以晚近的研究重新評估富蘭克林，重新想像新的共和國誕生時，他建構身分認同的社會歷史背景，以及他面對十八世紀跨大西洋地區新時代出現時的回應。本文不以國家主義的方式去想像富蘭克林，而將他視為轉型中的人物，出生在一個變化中、涉及跨大西洋事物的新英格蘭。本文也將討論印刷文化在富蘭克林身上所造成的獨特身分。
This article aims to reassess Franklin in light of recent scholarship. It proposes to re-historicize Franklin, to re-imagine the social and historical conditions Franklin faced when he was fashioning or negotiating his identity in response to his disillusionment toward an imperial power (England) and the founding of a new republic (the U.S.) as well as in response to the emergence of a new era in the eighteenth-century transatlantic regions. This article will not conceive of Franklin in nationalistic terms, but rather treat him as a transitional figure situated in a changing New England which was involved in transatlantic enterprises. This article will also discuss the unique situations that Franklin, as author and printer, faced during the Enlightenment era. The emergence of print culture fostered Franklin’s career as a businessman and man of letters but also created a peculiar identity out of him.
Relation:
淡江外語論叢=Tamkang Studies of Foreign Languages and Literatures 18，頁33-57
