"Retrotopia" In Cranford:

Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Granford fictionalizes a utopian rural community centered on single women.Retrotopia refers to a kind of utopia which is set in the past.From a social and historical perspective,the economic and political ideas of Cranford people are clearly at odds with the background of the prospering industrial society,representing a structure of feeling that is prevalent in the nineteenth century England:to distain the current industrialism and to idealize the garden-like life of the past.The cause of this nostalgic structure of feeling lies in the inconsistency between the economic development of England and the ruling ideology at the time,that is,the fact that the industrial bourgeoisie created much wealth of society but did not dominate the social values.Personally,Mrs.Gaskell's religious belief has made her very passionate about social reform.She hopes to improve the general moral level of society through her works.Besides,as a female,the author's sympathetic characteristic can also be noticed in this novel.By contrasting the harmonious community of Cranford with the dreadful reality of industrial city Drumble,the novel presents an idyllic,nostalgic utopia connected by sympathy.However,through close reading of the text,some differences that do not match the retrotopian tendency in the novel are also exposed.Therefore,the self-sufficiency of this community gradually fails.First,there is a contradiction between the major characters'identity as rentier class and the community's aversion to wealth and industrialization Secondly,as an idealized example of "English garden".Cranford is built upon the exploited colonies.Thirdly,the religion's influence on people's morality is weakening.which reveals the industrialism's erosion of religious belief.Finally,this closed retrotopian community could not be self-sufficient without external vitality.This also shows that eventually this retrotopian community could only vanish into the industrial world.This thesis argues that although the author appeals for traditional morality's return in the background of rampant industrialization,she shows an ambiguous attitude towards the retrotopian tendency of Cranford.