【作者】 王晓丹；

【导师】 虞建华；

【作者基本信息】 上海外国语大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2014， 博士

【摘要】 近年来身份问题之所以颇受人文学科多个领域的青睐，与上个世纪全世界在政治、经济、意识形态的变化相关，也与殖民地解体和全球化进程的加快密切相关。受哲学、心理学和社会学研究的影响，文学批评也同样关注身份问题，并且已经脱离了传统意义上对预设的固定独立的主体的关注，转向对流动的变化的身份的探讨。美国作家普林斯顿大学教授乔伊斯·卡罗·欧茨近期的小说作品不仅延续了她一贯的现实主义风格和对美国社会现实生活的真切反映和评价，更体现了她对后工业时代和后现代语境下身份问题的关注。本文选取欧茨在2003-2007年间创作的四部小说，探讨欧茨笔下的人物在文化身份、种族身份、社会身份和性别身份建构过程中的困境和焦虑。本论文的主要研究工作包括：首先，欧茨在《掘墓人的女儿》中展现了人物面对文化身份的挣扎和困惑。文化身份不再是共有的和集体的身份，而是不断变化和建构的身份。小说中的人物在面对文化身份危机的过程中，采取了不同的应对策略。无论他们采取何种应对策略，处于文化身份危机中的人们饱受经济窘境、精神疏离和内心困惑的痛苦，文化身份的追寻是一个没有止境的过程。《黑人女孩/白人女孩》描写了越战后美国社会的种族问题，文本通过对白人叙事者自身身份困惑的描述展现了黑人与白人之间的冲突和种族身份问题。黑人的种族身份被建构为他者。小说主人公的故事反映了黑人在美国社会如何被他者化，以及他们作为他者被社会孤立和疏离的困境。此外，欧茨的文本以打破真实与谎言的界限的方式，喻指打破种族身份二元对立的可能性。本论文从社会身份理论的角度分析《纹身女孩》所体现的社会身份问题。小说描绘了职业、教育背景和贫富经济状况的差异，这些差异构成了阶级划分和社会身份的等级体系。无论欧茨笔下的人物具有何种社会身份，他们都会经历心理层面或物质层面的挣扎和困扰，而这种困境与创伤和记忆紧密相关，人物的悲剧结局也是不同社会阶层和具有不同社会身份的人物之间不可调和的矛盾冲突的结果。最后，论文讨论了小说《大瀑布》中的性别身份问题。性别身份并非由生物学上的特征界定，而是社会和文化建构的产物。小说中具有同性恋倾向的男主人公的自杀，是对主流意识形态控制下的以异性恋为规范的社会的反抗。此外，欧茨通过对女主人公的生活经历的描绘，展现了二十世纪五十年代的女性迫于当时美国社会的压力接受了传统的妻子和母亲角色，遵从于父权社会所界定的规范的女性特质和行为方式。本文运用后现代和文化研究的相关理论，从身份建构的四个方面分析了欧茨的近期小说。在一定程度上，身份建构研究的本质是考察统治与从属、中心与边缘以及强势与弱势之间的对抗和冲突。由此，本论文探讨了欧茨在这四部作品中所揭示的主流意识形态在文化、种族、社会和性别身份建构过程中的控制和规范作用。欧茨一向以深邃的洞察力著称，她在这四部小说中准确地再现了处于身份危机中的人物的挣扎、困惑和焦虑，欧茨的小说体现了她对美国社会边缘人群的一如既往的关注与同情。本论文在吸收和借鉴前人研究成果的基础上，为欧茨作品的研究提出了相对较新的观点，以期为今后相关的深入研究抛砖引玉。更多还原

【Abstract】 Recently the issue of identity has drawn much attention from many areas insocial and humanity studies. Its importance has been increasingly projected alongsidethe world-wide changes in politics, economy and ideology. The discussion of the issueof identity has also been closely associated with the disintegration of colonies and theacceleration of globalization. Influenced by philosophy, psychology and sociology,more and more attention has been paid to the issue of identity in literary criticism,which frequently regards it as something fluid and changing rather than fixed andindependent, and as something free from predetermination. American writer JoyceCarol Oates continues her realistic style of writing and with her sharp observation ofAmerican social reality, she has expressed her concern over identity in post-industrialand postmodern context in her recent novels published in the first ten years of the21stcentury. This dissertation focuses on four recent novels by Oates between2003and2007to discuss how she reveals the anxiety and frustration of the characters in theirconstruction of cultural, racial, social and gender identities.Through depicting the story of some German immigrants in The Gravedigger’sDaughter, Oates keeps a watchful eye on people’s struggles and confusion about theircultural identity that is no longer a shared and collective one, but a changing andconstructed one. In the text Oates portrays the characters who adopt differentstrategies to cope with their cultural identity crisis. No matter what strategies theyadopt--the total abandonment, the reliance upon the traditional or the reshaping of anew--they suffer from mental pains and spiritual alienation. The construction ofcultural identity is a continuous and never-ending process.Portraying post-Vietnam America against the background of civil rightsmovement, Black Girl/White Girl exposes the pervasive nature of racism in theUnited States in1970s. The issue of racial identity is exhibited through the whitenarrator’s confrontation with her own identity. In the text, Oates makes it clear thatthe black racial identity is constructed as “inferior,” the marginalized Other. The story of the protagonist shows how African Americans are otherized in the Americansociety and how otherness brings about spiritual isolation and psychologicalalienation that lead to the tragedy of death. More importantly, Oates implies a strongpossibility of the transgression of the accepted racial division constructed by thedominant racial ideology by blurring the boundary between truths and lies.The analysis of The Tattooed Girl is undertaken from the perspective of socialidentity theory. There are signs of differences in profession and educationalbackgrounds as well as sharp economic disparity between the poor and the rich. Thesesigns in turn compose class distinction and the rigid hierarchy of social identities.Being economically and socially disadvantaged, the lower class in the novel with asubordinate social identity experiences personal struggles and strives for meresurvival while the middle class in the novel with a privileged social identityundergoes spiritual suffering due to the traumatic memory of the family past. Oatesalso presents a utopian desire of the lower class for an upward mobility so as tochange their social identities. However, this utopian desire of altering social identityboundary is just a dream. As a result, in the end of the story, the deaths of the twocharacters seem to indicate the incompatible conflicts between social classes.My study analyzes gender identity in The Falls, regarding gender as a social andcultural construct manipulated by regulatory practices. The hero’s suicide can beinterpreted as a resistance against the compulsory gender pattern of heterosexualitymaintained by regulatory practices and the dominant ideology. Moreover, Oatespresents another main female character as a person who is forced to turn herself into atraditionally accepted and normative wife-mother model, subjecting herself to thenorms of femininity imposed by the patriarchal division of gender identity.In a sense, the study of identity construction is in essence to examine theconflicts and the confrontations between the dominance and the subordination, thecenter and the margin, and the privileged and the disadvantaged. Accordingly, whatOates brings under critical scrutiny in the four novels is the influence of regulatorysocial discourses on the identity construction of the individuals who confront theentrenched boundaries of culture, race, class and gender. Moreover, this dissertation intends to uncover the humanism behind Oates’s realistic portrayal of the frustratedand alienated characters and her sympathetic approach to their marginalizedexperience. My study will also serve as a flatstone on the pavement, offering,hopefully, a step forward toward the excavation of the full stature and importance ofOates’s works that are rich resources worthy of exploration.更多还原