Made in England

Alison Flood “The Catcher in the Rye has roots in Devon, claims BBC documentary” http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/15/catcher-in-the-rye-devon-claims-documentary-jd-salinger


作家J. D.サリンジャーは1944年に軍務のため、英国デヴォン州*1のトリヴァートン*2という田舎町に3か月間滞在した。そして、ノルマンディ上陸作戦*3に参加した。最近のBBCラヂオのJD Salinger, Made in England*4というドキュメンタリーでは、サリンジャー研究家のMark Hodkinson氏が、このトリヴァートン滞在は(その頃既に着手されていた*5サリンジャーの代表作『ライ麦畑でつかまえて』(キャッチャー・イン・ザ・ライ*6の主人公ホールデン・コーフィールドのキャラクター形成に重要な影響を与えたと主張している。ホールデンが受胎した土地? のみならず、この3か月間は、後のサリンジャー自身の田舎への隠居にも影響を与えたらしい。トリヴァートン滞在は根っからの都会人であったサリンジャーにとっては初めての田舎体験だった。


“Whilst his protagonist is American and his themes are universal, it was very much made in England,” Hodkinson told the Independent*7. “Salinger later told friends that England changed him and his writing. The slower pace of life, the matter-of-factness of the people and the green landscape brought more reflection to his work.

“He announced soon afterwards that he was going to be more ‘sympathetic’ to his characters, including Holden Caulfield … on [whom] he was already working in Devon.”

Dr Sarah Graham, a lecturer in American literature at the University of Leicester, accompanied Hodkinson during his research in Devon and agreed with his perspective on Caulfield, saying that Devon would have shown the writer “a rural, quiet world, very different from his hometown of New York”.

“He was very much an urban writer – wanted to be published in the New Yorker (and was, for most of his career) – focusing on the lives of young city people, many of them not that pleasant. He was in Devon waiting to be shipped to Europe for the D-Day landings, and he must have been afraid of what was in store (rightly, as it turned out). The contrast between his past in NYC and his future in combat in Europe must have been intensified by this brief period in Devon, in a small traditional town,” said Graham.

“I think the fact that Holden in Catcher loathes war and dreams of escaping NYC for a rural life, might well be informed by the Devon experience. And Salinger himself left New York for a very simple life in Cornish, New Hampshire, after the war. In the short story, a traumatised soldier is brought back from the brink of complete breakdown by a letter from a young girl he met in Devon – Esmé – because her love for him shows that the world is not entirely corrupted. I think that the promise of innocence – that it can redeem the ugliness of the modern world – is a key concept for Salinger’s post-war work.”

Alison Flood “'Dracula was not from Exeter,' insists Bram Stoker descendant” http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/08/dracula-was-not-from-exeter-insists-bram-stoker-descendant


さて、英国のデヴォン州だが、少し前には、Andy Struthersという人がブラム・ストーカー*8のキャラクター、ドラキュラ伯爵*9トランシルヴァニア生まれではなく、イングランドのデヴォン生まれだと主張し、ブラム・ストーカーのgreat-grandnephew(甥の孫)であるDacre Stoker氏*10が反論するということが起きていたのだった。


Writer Andy Struthers told the Exeter Express and Echo last week about his theory that Stoker was inspired by the Exeter*11 writer Sabine Baring-Gould’s texts Lycanthropy: the Study of Werewolves, and the vampire story Margery of Quether, adding: “People will be surprised and sometimes shocked by my findings, as most of what they now hold true will be proven to be false. It’s a bit like finding out who Father Christmas really is.”

Struthers, who will present his findings at the World Dracula Congress*12 in Dublin this autumn, and who is looking for a publisher for his book Dracula Incarnate: Unearthing the Definitive Dracula, told the paper that “the book of werewolves and the vampire tale provided Stoker with elements of his story, and virtually everything he needed for the creation of his vampire Count, possibly including the voice of his vampire, which was female”.

Stoker’s decision to have his lawyer character Jonathan Harker leave for Transylvania from Exeter’s Cathedral Close was “included in the novel as a way of saying thank you to Baring-Gould, and the masses of material that he had provided the Irish author with”, added Struthers, because “Stoker was fond of tipping his hat to friends and acquaintances who had either helped him in researching his novel, or perhaps even inspired the characters within its pages”.

Struthers told the Guardian that he believes the reason his theory has been “hiding in the shadows” since Dracula was published in 1897 was because attention has focused on Emily Gerard’s work The Land Beyond the Forest*13, a the social history of Transylvania that includes details about the vampire myth.

“Gerard’s work was indeed indispensable to Stoker, but only regarding the detailing of Transylvania itself, as Stoker never went there,” said Struthers, pointing to Stoker’s rare interview with the British Weekly, in which he cites Baring-Gould as an inspiration.

吸血鬼ドラキュラ (創元推理文庫)

吸血鬼ドラキュラ (創元推理文庫)

Dacre Stoker氏の反論;

Stoker’s great grand-nephew Dacre Stoker, author of the official Dracula sequel Dracula: the Undead and editor of a volume of Stoker’s forgotten writings, told the Guardian he agreed about the importance of Baring-Gould’s writing on his ancestor, but disputed the headlines which claimed Dracula hailed from Devon, not Transylvania*14 .

“My radar goes up when someone says ‘Dracula was from here’. Dracula was not from Exeter, but part of his inspiration was,” said Dacre Stoker. He cited a rare interview Stoker gave with Jane Stoddard*15, where Stoker told Stoddard: “No one book that I know of will give you all the facts. I learned a good deal from E Gerard’s Essays on Roumanian Superstitions, which first appeared in the 19th century, and were afterwards published in a couple of volumes. I also learned something from Mr Baring-Gould’s Were-Wolves. Mr Gould has promised a book on vampires, but I do not know whether he has made any progress with it.”

“Everyone tries to find something a little bit new or different about Dracula, even now, 118 years after it was published, which is wonderful,” said Dacre Stoker. “But to me it is a bit of a stretch to argue that Dracula came from Exeter. To argue that Bram was influenced by Baring-Gould’s book on werewolves though - with that I completely agree.”

His ancestor, added Dacre Stoker, “was heavily influenced by many sources, and one of those was Baring-Gould … As you analyse Dracula, you see Bram has merged the vampire he’s created from folklore, but that he has also taken the concept of the werewolf in mythology from Baring-Gould, and merged it all together, also using Emily Gerard’s travel guide,” said Stoker. “Dracula is mostly vampire, but he has some werewolf characteristics – when he jumps of the ship in Whitby, Bram made him a big black dog, and then in London he turns into a wolf.”

ブラム・ストーカーのネタ本を巡る論争といえるだろうか。、Andy Struthersは Sabine Baring-Gouldの本が決定的だったと主張し、 Dacre Stokerはそれも重要だけど決してそれだけではないと反論する。
ところで、このSabine Baring-Gouldはアングリカンの牧師をしながら、小説を書いたり民俗学(特に民謡の研究)をしたりしていた人。生涯に1000点以上の著書を書きまくった。『吸血鬼ドラキュラ』というのは民俗学によって生み出されたフィクションなのだった。
Sabine Baring-Gouldを巡って;


“Sabine Baring-Gould” http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/discovering/famous/sabine_baring_gould.shtml
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabine_Baring-Gould
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%BB%E3%82%A4%E3%83%90%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%99%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0%EF%BC%9D%E3%82%B0%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%89
Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1766

*1:http://www.devon.gov.uk/ See eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%87%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A9%E3%83%B3

*2:See eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiverton,_Devon

*3:Mentioned in http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20070817/1187376297 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20110811/1313038555

*4:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b070hbss

*5:上梓されるのは1951年。

*6:See also http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20100129/1264744945 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20110113/1294939684 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20130601/1370019915 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20130603/1370187462 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20131207/1386372516 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20150420/1429505411

*7:Adam Sherwin “The Catcher in the Rye 'was inspired by Devon town of Tiverton'” http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-catcher-in-the-rye-was-inspired-by-devon-town-of-tiverton-a6872251.html

*8:See eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker

*9:See eg. http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20091208/1260270282 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20120611/1339386585 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20120614/1339683625

*10:See eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacre_Stoker

*11:http://www.exploreexeter.co.uk/ See eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter

*12:http://tsdcon25.com/

*13:See eg. http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-land-beyond-the-forest-source-material-for-dracula

*14:Katie Louise Davies “Now it's Count Drac-oo-arrr! Blood-sucking vampire was from DEVON not Transylvania, claims new book” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3432134/Dracula-DEVON-not-Transylvania-claims-new-book.html

*15:Jane Stoddard “An Interview With Bram Stoker” https://beladraculalugosi.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/an-interview-with-bram-stoker/