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玛格丽特·阿特伍德“生存”主题和“经典重构”策略研究

A Study on the Survival Theme and the Strategy of Canon Reconstruction in Margaret Atwood’s Works

【作者】 张传霞

【导师】 仵从巨;

【作者基本信息】 山东大学 , 比较文学与世界文学, 2014, 博士

【摘要】 玛格丽特·阿特伍德是享有崇高国际声誉的加拿大女作家,创作涉及诗歌、小说、文学评论、儿童文学、电视剧本等各种文体,收获加拿大本土和国际众多文学奖项,有“加拿大文学女皇”、“加拿大文化代言人”之称。纵观阿特伍德的整个创作生涯,其作品充满了大量的希腊神话、西方童话、圣经故事、文学经典等“前文本”,论者把这一创作特色定义为“经典重构”。本论文将在后现代主义的背景下,结合经典论争的讨论,考察阿特伍德作品主题与“经典重构”之间的关系,旨在说明阿特伍德以“经典重构”的叙事策略成功地表达了“生存”的主题。上世纪六、七十年代,随着解构主义、女权主义、后殖民主义、文化研究等后现代文化思潮的兴起,在文学研究和文学创作领域出现了文学经典重构的潮流。20世纪后期这些文艺理论的共同核心是对传统的反叛、对权威的颠覆。在此背景下,作为承载了权威、典范、永恒等品质的文学经典,成为被审视、被质疑的对象,从而引发了一场关于经典问题的讨论。从考察“经典化”的过程出发,人们认识到经典的形成不完全是根据其美学价值而确定的客观事物,而是文化、政治、经济等各种因素合力建构的结果。通过考察传统西方文学经典,人们发现入选的都是欧洲的、白人的、男性的和代表主流意识形态的作家作品,即作者的种族、阶级、性别身份决定了经典之列的被包含或被排除。因此所谓经典其实是权力等外因操控与建构的结果,带有种族歧视、男权中心、帝国主义色彩,并对少数族裔、女性、劳动阶层的边缘化过程起到推波助澜的不良作用,经典成为社会权力合法化的合谋。可见,在多元化的背景下,作为文化表征的文学经典已经超出了文学的范围,成了带有“政治”色彩的权力争夺场。阿特伍德自称是一个“政治”作家,她的“政治性”是一种权力意识,本质上是对边缘与中心位置重新排列的兴趣。阿特伍德“政治性”的集中体现是作品传达的“生存”主题。“生存”在阿特伍德的文学世界里具有多重内涵,具体来说,即女性在男权社会里的艰难生存、加拿大民族在英国和美国双重帝国主义阴影下的尴尬生存、人类在日益恶化的生态环境里前景堪忧的生存。概括来讲,就是女性生存、民族生存、人类生存。女性、加拿大民族、大自然在传统的男性/女性、英、美/加拿大、人类/大自然二元对立模式中,显然处于边缘、下层的位置。重构“中心”、“权威”代表的文学经典,为实现阿特伍德寻求的边缘事物到中心从而实现“生存”的目标提供了绝佳的契合点。通过重构文学经典,阿特伍德修正了男权中心下的女性神话,把女性从“神”的位置上解救下来还原其作为独立的人的真实面目;改变了英美帝国中心下的“附庸”加拿大民族形象,以文学想象构建独立的加拿大民族身份;批判了人类中心思想下人类对自然的践踏,对身处生态危机中的人类发出预警。论文第一部分为“绪论”,分两节展开论述。第一节首先从阿特伍德作品中大量存在的文学经典“前文本”入手,梳理了“经典重构”、阿特伍德的“政治性”与“生存”主题的关系,进而指出“经典重构”是阿特伍德传达“生存”主题的叙事策略,即通过重构历史上的文学经典,质疑经典背后的权力关系,让处于边缘的女性、加拿大民族、自然借文学形式得以发声。需要指出的是,阿特伍德的“经典重构”不是对文学经典的颠覆与消解,而是对文学资源选择性地再利用。第二节是文献综述,首先梳理了国内外阿特伍德的研究现状,进而指出本文的研究切入点和研究目标:从阿特伍德“经典重构”的叙事表层入手,深挖“生存”主题的表达。第一章分三节阐述了关于“经典”的三个问题。第一个问题是“经典”辨析。通过辨析中外“经典”概念的词源及其演变,指出经典背后隐藏的权力因素。第二个问题是“经典论争”。围绕“经典化”问题形成了“捍卫经典派”和“拓宽经典派”两大阵营。“捍卫经典派”以美国学者哈罗德·布鲁姆为代表,坚持认为经典本身具有的审美品质是构成经典的本质要素。“拓宽经典派”认为经典是被建构起来的,主张打破欧洲中心主义、男权中心主义的传统精英标准,拓宽经典,纳入更多女性、少数族裔作家及作品。第三个问题是“经典重构”。通过对重写、改写、重述、反写、重构几个相近概念的辨析,指出阿特伍德经典重构的后现代语境意义。第二章题为“女性神话的重述”,探讨了阿特伍德通过‘经典重构”对女性生存主题的表达。该章首先指出女性在传统文学经典中是以要么“天使”要么“女妖”的两极化形象而存在的,表明女性只是男性以自我存在为参照建构出来的“神话”,本质上反映了女性无言的生存处境。阿特伍德通过赋予文学经典中的女性以话语权,颠覆了男性建构的“女性神话”,展现了女性作为一个真实的人类所具有的复杂性和多样性。本章从女性与男性、女性与自我、女性与母亲三个角度展开论述,全面分析了阿特伍德笔下所呈现的女性世界的丰富性,从而在一定程度上修正了文学经典塑造的女性形象的单一性。第一节“女性与男性”论述了异性关系中女性的生存处境,分两小节分别从“语言”和“身体”的角度分析男性对女性的压制以及女性的反抗。第二节“女性与自我”与第三节“女性与母亲”探讨了同性关系中女性的生存处境,论述了女性在男权中心社会里对女性身份的抗拒与认同。第三章题为“民族史诗的重唱”,探讨了阿特伍德通过“经典重构”对民族生存主题的表达。本章首先指出“史诗”这一古老文学体裁对民族身份建构的意义,同时通过分析加拿大特殊的历史和地理状况造成的民族身份的尴尬处境,指出阿特伍德通过文学建构民族身份的努力就是为加拿大谱写“民族史诗”。本章分两节从两个角度分析阿特伍德为寻求加拿大民族生存采取的策略。策略一:召唤“幽灵”,阿特伍德通过梳理本国文学经典、寻找本国文化祖先,树立加拿大的文化自信,从而建构独立的加拿大民族身份。策略一对抗的是宗主国——英国对加拿大身份建构的影响,阿特伍德通过写作代表加拿大民族文学的评论专著、塑造苏珊娜·穆迪为加拿大人原型、追认加拿大土著居民为祖先,表明加拿大有自己独特的民族文化根基,力图解决加拿大民族的“异乡人”之感。策略二:心灵“去魅”,阿特伍德通过构建施害(美国)/受害(加拿大)模式,塑造“施害者”的美国形象,对这一帝国中心进行“反写”。“美国人”在阿特伍德笔下已成为一个特殊名词,它与国别的关系不大,而是具有破坏力、征服欲和善于使用现代工具的一类人(尤其是男性)的代称。需要指出的是,阿特伍德塑造反面的美国人形象,不是出于狭隘的民族主义心理,而是体现了她对加拿大社会现实乃至人类整个文明进程的反思。第四章题为“创世纪的再创”,探讨了阿特伍德通过“经典重构”对人类生存主题的表达。本章首先指出在人类中心主义思想的支配下,人类片面强调对自然的权力,而忽视了对自然应负有的责任和义务,生态系统的平衡被严重破坏,人类面临严峻的生存前景。阿特伍德通过戏拟的一系列“恶托邦”小说,讲述了一个现代版的“创世纪”故事,把人类毁灭的图景赤裸裸地呈现在世人面前,以期对现代人类生活方式起到预警作用,提醒人们重新思考人类与自然的关系。本章分三节重点分析了《使女的故事》、《羚羊与秧鸡》、《洪疫之年》、《债与偿》四个文本,探讨阿特伍德对人类生存不同角度的思考。结论部分是对全文的总结和提升。为弱势事物“寻找位置”是贯穿阿特伍德创作的内在驱动力。女性、加拿大与自然在传统男性/女性、英、美/加拿大、人类/自然的二元对立关系中均处在弱势的位置上。如何让这些处于弱势、边缘位置的事物获得应有的位置,阿特伍德找到了一个很好的切入点,即通过对文学经典的重构,把非主流事物带到中心,目的并非取代而是获得和谐平等的地位。阿特伍德通过重构文学经典,让非中心的女性、加拿大和自然得以“幸存”,也获得了“生存”应有的尊严。

【Abstract】 Margaret Atwood is a Canadian Female writer enjoying a high international reputation, whose works include poems, novels, literary criticism, children’s literature, TV plays and so on. Atwood wins numerous Canadian and international literary awards. She is regarded as "the Queen of Canadian literature" and "spokesman of Canadian culture". By investigating Atwood’s woks, the author find that they are full of Greek myths, western fairy tales, the bible stories and literary classics. Her rewriting of classical works is defined as canon reconstruction by literary critics. This dissertation examines the relationship between canon reconstruction and the frequently occurring themes in Atwood’s works, under the background of postmodernism and canon debates, trying to illustrate the view that Atwood successfully expresses the "survival" theme by using the strategy of canon reconstruction.In the1960s and1970s, with the rise of such postmodernist cultural ideological trend as deconstructivism, feminism, post-colonialism and cultural studies, canon reconstruction became a trend in the field of literature research and literature creation. The common core of the literary theory in the late20th century is the rebellion against authority and the subversion of tradition. In this context, the canon which has the quality of authority, modle and eternity,was questioned and reexamined, thus triggering a discussion about the canon. Starting from the process of the canonization, pepole realized that the canon-formation wasn’t an entirely object judged by aesthetic values but the result constructed by the cultural, political, and economic factors. By examining the traditional western canon, critics found that the chosen canon was typically European, white, male, and it represented the mainstream ideology, which means that the author’s race, class, gender identity determined the canon column’s being included and expelled. The so-called canon is actually the result of external control and construction, which takes on a quality of racist, male-centralism and imperialism and has negative effects in the course of marginalizing the ethnic minorities, women and working-class, so the canon has became the conspiracy of legalization of social power. It can be seen that in the context of multiculture, the canon as the cultural representation is beyond the scope of literature and becomes power battlefield with "political" nature.Atwood describes herself as "political" writer and her "political" is a kind of power consciousness, which is essentially the interest in rearranging the position of the edge and the center. The concentrated expression of Atwood’s "political" is the "survival" theme conveyed in her works."Survival" has multiple connotations in Atwood’s literary world, including women’s poor survival in patriarchal society and Canada’s embarrassing survival as a nation in the double shadow of suzerain and the United States, as well as human’s grim survival in the deteriorating ecological environment. To summarize, they are women survival, nation survival and human suvival. Women, Canada and nature are obviously in the position of the edge and the lower layer in the traditional binary mode of male/female, Britain and the United States/Canada, human/nature. Reconstruting canon that represents "center" and "authority" provides the perfect spot for Atwood’ goal placing the edge to the center so as to suvive. By reconstructing canon, Atwood revises the female myth constructed by the male and saves the women from the position of "goddess", restoring women what they really are; Moreover, she tries to change traditional the "client" of Canada, and endows it with an independent nation identity. In addition, criticizes human’s violations of nature under the consciousness of anthropocentricism and warns people of ecological crisis.The first part is "introduction" and includes two sections. The first section presents problem. The author firstly combes the relationship between canon reconstruction, political and survival theme with a view to lots of canon existing in Atwood’s works. And then the author points out that canon reconstruction is Atwood’s narrative strategy to convey survival theme. By reconstructing the canon, Atwood calls the power relations in question and lets women, Canada and nature speak out in the form of literature. It should be pointed out that, Atwood’s canon reconstruction is not the subversion and digestion to canon, but the selectively reusing of literature resources. The second section is the literature review. The author firstly reviews research situation about Atwood at home and abroad, then points out that the research perspective of this article and the aim of this study, that is probing the expression of "survival" theme starting from the surface of Atwood’s works.Chapter one elaborates three questions about the canon in three sections. The first question is the concept of "canon". By differentiating the concept of canon in China and foreign country, it points out that power hides behind the canon. The second question is the canon debate. Discussants are divided into "school of defending the canon" and "school of opening-up the canon" based on the "canonization"."School of defending the canon" is represented by the American scholar Harold Bloom, who insists that the aesthetic quality of canon is the essential element of canon-formation."School of opening-up the canon" argues that the canon is constructed, so it advocates breaking the eurocentrism, male centralism standard of traditional elite and widening the canon in order to include more female and minority writers and works. The third question is canon reconstruction. By differentiating several similar concepts, such as rewriting, retelling, writing back, reconstruction, it points out that Atwood reconstructs canon in the post-modernistic context.Chapter two, entitled titled "the Restatement of Female Myth," discusses Atwood’s expression of women survival theme through canon reconstruction. In this chapter, the author firstly points out that female polarization images of either "angel" or "witch" in traditional literature shows that women are just the "myth" constructed by male imagination and reflects women’s wordless living situation in essence. Atwood subverts the female myth constructed by men through giving voice to wamen in the canon and shows women’s complexity and diversity as a true human being. This chapter discusses it from three aspects:women and men, women and female ego, women and mother, comprehensively analyzing the richness of women’s world in Atwood’s works which to a certain extent, amends the female rigid images shaped by the canon. Section one entitled "Women and Men" explores women survival situation in heterosexual relationship and analyzes men’s repression on women and women’s resistance from the aspects of "language" and "body". Section two entitled "Women and Female Ego" and Section three entitled "Women and Mother" discuss the women’s living conditions in homosexual relationship and explore women’s resistance and identity with female identity.The chapter three, entitled "the Recomposition of National Epic", discusses Atwood’s expression of nation survival theme through canon reconstruction. In this chapter, the author firstly analyzes the ancient literary gere of "Epic", which helps to construct ethnic identity, and then discusses the embarrassment of Canada caused by special situation of history and geography, pointing out that what Atwood does to construct ethnic identity by literature is composing the "national epic" for Canada. This chapter analyzes Atwood’s survival strategy from two aspects for Canadian national survival. The first strategy is to call "ghost". By combing Canadian canon and finding out cultural ancestor, Atwood sets up the Canadian cultural self-confidence, so as to construct the independence of Canada’s national identity. The first strategy is designed to resist against the suzerain-British influence on the construction of Canadian ethnic identity. By writing literary review monographs on behalf of Canadian national literature, shaping Susanna Moodie as Canadian prototype, and ratifying Canadian aboriginal inhabitants as ancestor, Atwood shows that Canada has its own unique national culture tradition and trys to solve the Canadian sense of "the stranger". The second strategy is to remove the ghost out of the mind. By building the model of injurer (America)/victim (Canada), Atwood shapes America as injurer to write back the center of empire."American" has became a special term in Atwood’s works, which has little to do with nationality, but addresses the kind of people (especially men) who are destructive, desirous of conquering and good at using modern tools. It should be pointed out that Atwood shapes the negative image of American not out of the narrow nationalism, but reflects her thinking of Canada social reality and the progress of human civilization.The chapter four, entitled "the Re-creation of Genesis", discusses Atwood’s expression of human survival theme through canon reconstruction. This chapter firstly points out that human claim their rights on the nature unilaterally and neglect their responsibility and obligation, so the balance of ecosystem has been severely damaged and human will face serious outlook. By parodying "Dystopia" novels, Atwood tells a modern version of the "genesis" story showing the picture of human’s destruction in front of human barely, in order to warn human to change lifestyle in modern society and remind people to rethink the relationship between human and nature. This chapter analyzes four texts that are The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and Payback:Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in three sections and discusses Atwood’s thinking of human existence from different angles.The final part is the conclusion which is the summary and distillation of the dissertation."Searching for position" for disadvantaged things is the intrinsic motivation of Atwood’s creation. Women, Canada and nature are in the disadvantaged position in the traditional binary mode of male/female, Britain and the United States/Canada, human/nature. How to make these disadvantaged things gain the position? Atwood finds a way which brings the non-mainstream things to the center by reconstructing canon with the aim not to replace the traditional mainstream things but obtain harmonious and equal status. By reconstructing canon, Atwood makes Women, Canada and nature survive acentrically and thus acquire their dignity of survival.

【关键词】 玛格丽特·阿特伍德生存主题经典重构
【Key words】 Margaret AtwoodSurvivalThemeCanon Reconstuction
  • 【网络出版投稿人】 山东大学
  • 【网络出版年期】2014年 11期
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