【作者】 许淑芳；

【导师】 殷企平；

【作者基本信息】 浙江大学 ， 比较文学与世界文学， 2011， 博士

【摘要】 人是符号动物,自有人类,便有符号的创造。然而,当符号的累积形成强大而绵密的体系后,真实世界被淹没了,肉身变得衰微,生存变得荒诞。乔治·奥威尔的小说对人类面临的这一日益严峻的身体困境进行了全面反思。身体研究是当前文学研究中的重要视角,自二十世纪八十年代大规模兴起之后,以其新颖独特的视角和广阔的理论覆盖面受到评论界重视,在文学和文化批评中作出了众多发现。从上述理论背景出发,本文对奥威尔小说中的身体作了全方位解读。全文共分为四个部分。文章第一部分结合奥威尔小说对人类身体衰亡景象的描写,揭示奥威尔对文明重压下垮掉的肉身的关注。身体的衰败在奥威尔小说中有两种主要表现方式：其一,奥威尔把他小说中出现的大多数人物比作渺小、卑微的动物,有时甚至是植物和无机物；其二,奥威尔在他的小说中使用了大量疾病和死亡意象。文章第二部分从符号与肉身的对立关系入手,分析了现代社会身体衰败的主要原因。这是奥威尔小说的主要贡献。他的四部小说分别透视了殖民主义、基督教信仰、文学神话和极权统治这四个现代化进程中形成的强大的符号体系对人的自然之身的侵害和剥夺。其中,《缅甸岁月》分析了殖民话语对身体进行编辑的逻辑,《牧师的女儿》揭露了基督教信仰对身体的禁锢,《让叶兰继续飞》思考了文学神话与身体之间的关系,《一九八四》剖析了乌托邦政治理想与身体之间的矛盾。文章第三部分分析了身体特征在奥威尔小说中的叙事功能。奥威尔小说中的每一位主人公都有明显的身体特征,如胎记、秃顶、肥胖、静脉曲张等等,而这些特征在小说中都起到了重要的叙事作用。本章选取了《缅甸岁月》中弗洛里的“胎记”和《上来透口气》中保灵的“肥胖”两个身体特征,分析了“胎记”的殖民话语批判功能和“肥胖”的结构作用。文章第四部分探讨了奥威尔关于拯救和解放身体的主要主张。奥威尔向往古老的有机社会的生活,渴求在原始的环境里消除人与物之间的界限,治愈符号刻画在人身上的每一道伤痕。本章从回归母腹和回到自然两个方面阐述了奥威尔小说独特的原始主义情怀。人类的文明史是一部符号不断得到创造、更新的历史,但同时符号又作为异质存在对人的自然之身构成压抑,使人失去其本来面目。这是文明发展必然遭遇的二律背反。在我们的身体日益沦陷进符号中的今天,奥威尔的反思和批判无疑是重要的清醒剂。然而,奥威尔想要完全摆脱符号,让身体回归母腹和自然的主张又透露出了他为肉体辩护的偏执倾向,因而只能作为一个反乌托邦作家的乌托邦理想来接受。我们在充分认识到符号对人的压抑的同时,也应该认识到,符号是人类的创造,是人类本质价值的体现。更多还原

【Abstract】 Ever since the beginning of human civilization, human beings have been symbolic animals. Nevertheless, when symbols ultimately grew into a powerful and all-inclusive system, the real world lost its tangibility, and the body became weak and the human existence absurd. It is this deteriorating condition of the body that deeply concerns George Orwell’s novels.The present dissertation endeavors to make a comprehensive study of the body in Orwell’s novels, and draws its strength from the relatively new theory of body study, which has been fruitful in literary criticism since its appearance in 1980s.The dissertation consists of 4 chapters.Chapter One focuses on Orwell’s attention to the body collapsing under the weight of civilization, as revealed in his descriptions of the declining of human body, which is displayed in two ways:characters compared to insignificant small animals, even plants or inorganic matters; and numerous images of sickness and death.Chapter Two analyses the major causes of the declining body from the perspective of symbol-body opposition, which is the major contribution of Orwellian novels. The four novels in question look at the ways in which the body is invaded and deprived by the four powerful symbol systems growing up in the process of modernization, namely those of colonization, Christian belief. literature or mythology. and the totalitarian government. In Burmese Days he analyses how the discourse of colonization controls the body. A Clergyman’s Daughter shows how the body is imprisoned by Christian faith. Keep the Aspidistra Flying considers the relationship between literature and body, and 1984 discusses the contradiction between Utopian ideals and the body. Chapter Three deals with the narrative functions of the body in Orwellian Novels. Indeed, each of the Orwellian protagonists has an obvious body mark, such as having a birthmark or swollen veins, or being obese or bald, which plays a significant role in the narrative. This chapter focuses on the birthmark of Flory in Burmese Days and the obesity of Bowling in Coming up for Air—the first for its criticism of colonial discourse, the second for its structural significance.Chapter Four explores Orwell’s idea of the body’s liberation and salvation. Orwell yearned to return to the life of the olden days in the organic community where human subjectivity was not so much isolated from the objectivity of the world so that the wounds on human body by symbols may be healed. This chapter illustrates the primitivism unique in Orwellian novels from two aspects:returning to the womb and returning to the nature.The history of human civilization is also a history of symbol making and remaking, in the process of which the natural beings of human are so depressed by those foreign symbols that they lose their original self. This is a paradox that will definitely happen in the development of civilization. Orwell’s reflection and criticism help us to see our natural selves at a time when our bodies are getting increasingly entangled in the net of symbols. Yet. on the other hand, it is necessary to notice Orwell’s obsession with body-defending when he tries to completely get rid of symbols and return the body to the womb and the nature. It is this obsession that makes his ideals no more than an anti-utopian writer’s Utopia. When one realizes how symbols depress human nature, one needs also to realize that symbols, as human creations, express by themselves the values of human nature.更多还原