Journal of Economic Studies in Literature
JESL, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2026, pp.106-116.
Print ISSN: 3107-3492; Online ISSN: 3107-3506
Journal homepage: https://www.jesljournal.com
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64058/jesl260107efmad
节俭的伦理学与情感的货币化
——《理智与情感》中经济叙事的双重道德机制
张鑫（Zhang Xin）
摘要：“新经济批评”为简·奥斯丁《理智与情感》的经济叙事与道德主题之间的关联提供了方法论框架。小说通过“饥荒价格”的历史嵌入、财产继承法的制度分析及女性经济依附性的多重再现，建构独特的“道德经济学”。埃莉诺的“审慎理性”与玛丽安的“情感过量”构成经济—道德连续体的正面张力，威洛比的“投机性情感”与露西的“算计性婚姻”则暴露市场逻辑对人际关系的渗透。奥斯丁既承认经济理性的决定作用，又坚持道德判断的相对自主性，从而形成批判性的经济人文主义。这一立场回应亚当·斯密《道德情操论》的核心命题，亦预示19世纪现实主义小说对资本主义现代性之核心焦虑：经济合理化与伦理价值领域的持久张力。
关键词：简·奥斯丁；《理智与情感》；经济叙事；道德哲学；新经济批评
作者简介：张鑫，博士，教授，现任职于中国江苏省常州市江苏理工学院外国语学院，主要从事欧美文学研究。电邮：zhangxin@jsut.edu.cn
Title: The Ethics of Frugality and the Monetization of Affection: The Dual Moral Mechanism of Economic Narrative in Sense and Sensibility
Abstract: New economic criticism provides a methodological framework for examining the interconnection between economic narrative and moral themes in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Through historical embedding of “famine prices”, institutional analysis of property inheritance law, and multiple representations of female economic dependency, the novel constructs a distinctive “moral economics”. Elinor’s “prudent rationality” and Marianne’s “excessive sensibility” constitute the positive tension of an economic-moral continuum, while Willoughby’s “speculative affection” and Lucy’s “calculative marriage” expose the penetration of market logic into human relations. Austen acknowledges the determining function of economic rationality while insisting on the relative autonomy of moral judgment, forming a critical economic humanism. This stance responds to the core proposition of Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments and anticipates the central anxiety of nineteenth-century realist fiction regarding capitalist modernity：the persistent tension between economic rationalization and the domain of ethical value.
Keywords: Jane Austen; Sense and Sensibility; Economic Narrative; Moral Philosophy; New Economic Criticism
Author Biography: Zhang Xin is a PhD and Professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Jiangsu University of Technology, Chang Zhou, Jiangsu Province, China. His research area is European and American Literature. E-mail: zhangxin@jsut.edu.cn.
Received: 24 Apr. 2026 / Revised: 06 May 2026 / Accepted: 01 Jun. 2026 / Published online: 15 Jun. 2026 / Print published: 25 Jun. 2026.
