路易斯·厄德瑞克作品杂糅性特征研究

【作者】 陈靓；

【导师】 张冲；

【作者基本信息】 复旦大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2008， 博士

【摘要】 本论文主要集中分析美国当代著名本土作家路易斯·厄德瑞克五部作品的文学特点、技巧和功能。在20世纪60年代美国本土文学复兴大潮来临之前,美国本土作家一直处于白人主流文化的边缘地位。在当代文化、文学日趋多元化的今天,随着中心与边缘的界限消解,美国本土文学开始了复兴之旅,探索重构本民族的文学以及文化身份。在作品中,他们尝试结合传统美国本土文化元素和现代西方写作技巧及理念,以文本和结构的杂糅重建自己独特的文学特征。从文化多元化的视角对路易斯·厄德瑞克作品中的文学身份构建进行解析,不仅可以进一步了解厄德瑞克的文学创作技巧,更有助于揭示当代美国本土作家的整体创作思路和文学特征。美国本土文学研究在国内刚刚起步,目前仍没有对美国本土文学系统性的科研成果,许多领域的研究尚属空白。国外的本土研究起步较早,随着对美国本土文学的重视程度不断加深,已被看作为美国文学起源的本土文学研究也日渐兴盛。目前国外许多学者开始从不同的角度审视不断崛起的本土作品,视角各有不同。就厄德瑞克的研究而言,有的评论家从家族体系的视角解析作品中印第安部落的谱系关系,审视作品的情节发展和人物间的关系;有的从象征的手法出发,探讨其作品中的中心形象和主题的构建;有的则致力发掘作品中的政治因素,探讨文本所隐含的政治无意识;有的关注作品中的性别因素和女性形象,并发掘女性形象在文化身份构建中的作用;有的则探讨作品中的叙述结构手法。而在以上的批评中,西方的批评理念大多建立在西方殖民者的集体无意识之上,以观看“他者”的角度来看待当代美国本土文学,至今没有从东方学者的视野,有意识地以后殖民视角审视在美国主流文化压迫的边缘不断繁衍兴盛的本土作品,并评价他们在对抗美国白人文化中所采用的文学复兴策略。文本是具有历史性的。文本的创作也是创作主体构建自我意识的过程。在过去,印第安的主体性被一味抹杀,现在,如何在文本中重构自己的历史,摆脱以往的失语状态是每个本土作家必须要面对的任务。厄德瑞克的作品同样如此,她重点关注权力和权力的运行机制。通过自己的文本为本民族正名,并重构部落的历史,这种文学、文化乃至政治无意识一直在厄德瑞克的作品中有着很明显的展现。论文致力于发掘在构建美国本土文学身份的努力中,路易斯·厄德瑞克的作品所展示的文学杂糅性技巧和特征。这种技巧主要来自于两个层面:传统本土文化元素,包括神话、口述传说、典仪、风俗等;另一个层面是西方文学的特征和思路,处于传统文化和西方理念之间的当代美国本土文学无法不会受到这两个方面的影响,如何构建自己独特的文学、文化身份,成了当代美国本土文学作家所要必须解决的问题。厄德瑞克的作品较典型地体现出了杂糅倾向,融合了传统部族文化和西方文学元素,在情节、人物、意象和结构上都体现出了较明显的杂糅性,在展示两个文化之间的冲突与融合的痕迹之余赋予了文本独特的身份特征。论文主要以霍米·巴巴的杂糅性理论为基础,从语言、宗教、神话和性别四个角度探讨文本杂糅性的具体表征及其意义。在第二章中,论文从文本结构上的多重叙述视角和语言的杂糅使用来展示杂糅性在语言层面的应用,并指出语言上的杂糅性有效地构建了人物的主体意识和叙述空间。第三章从宗教的层面探讨杂糅性表征,在从文化上探讨了民俗宗教的产生背景后,分析了宗教对文本在结构上、人物塑造和形象建构上的印象,并指出在宗教的冲突、融合中,只有有效地吸收、借鉴并加以创造才是走出主流基督教统治的最佳方式。第四章从“恶作剧者”的形象出发,他从神话层面上承载了杂糅性的反抗理念,以破坏者和挑衅者的身份挑战主流白人文化,作为新时期的神话原型创建了自己的“第三空间”。第五章从性别杂糅的角度,以“中性者”为主体分析了作为本土文化独特元素的“中性者”形象。“中性者”继承了传统性别杂糅的特征,并有效地依托本土文化根源反抗主流文化。总之,厄德瑞克在作品中的杂糅性作为作品中人物的生存策略和创作理念有效地构建了文本的主体性和独立性。在印第安传统文化和当代白人文化中开辟了自己的空间。本论文的创新之处在于首次明确采用后殖民视角综合分析以芙乐为核心人物的厄德瑞克的五部小说,这五部作品在主题和手法上均具有典型的代表性,并全面地展示了厄德瑞克在文学、文化主体性构建过程中所采取的斗争策略和部族意识。通过发掘厄德瑞克的文本与历史的互动关系,以及在白人文化压迫下对本民族身份的构建策略,本论文全面探讨了厄德瑞克的文学技巧和理念,提出杂糅性的文学策略是在当代多元文化背景下的必然发展趋势,并在后殖民框架下揭示了当代美国本土作家的集体创作意识和写作策略。更多还原

【Abstract】 As with many contemporary Native American writers, Erdrich has created a hybrid of traditional story and novel, closely connected to her sense of mixed-bloodedness, and a fundamental characteristic of the contemporary Native American novel. Erdrich’s poetry and fiction are clearly marked by her mixed-blood heritage in her representations of German American and Chippewa cultures, but a more figurative use of the term "mixed-blood" also applies to her fiction. Erdrich writes what we might term her works as "the mixed-blood narrative" in that, like mixed-blood culture, her texts occupy, in terms of subject matter and formal qualities, the margin between purely traditional Native American modes of representation and those modes common in European American culture. As a writer of mixed-blood narratives, Erdrich assumes a different responsibility from that of the traditional storyteller whose task is to enact culture. She shows that neither conformity to contemporary Anglo values nor a retreat to native culture provides access to wholeness. In her novels, Erdrich writes her own stories of the past only to discover that they must find a new way of making history, a way of forging a new historicity.This dissertation distinguishes itself by approaching Erdrich’s five novels from four perspectives: narration, religion, mythology, and gender to examine the notion of hybridity in Erdrich’s construction of her literary world under the influence of dominant white culture and explore her reconstruction of the Native American literary identity. The present dissertation will employ the theoretical notion of hybridity and the third space (Homi Bhabha) to examine the literary hybridization techniques and their literary representations as well as functions in the novels. From hybridization perspective, the study on them will be comprehensive and original in the survey of Louise Erdrich’s literary strategy of literary and cultural preservation and resurrection in her North Dakota series. As she is one of the leading and representative figures of the contemporary native writers, the study on Louise Erdrich’s novels will not only lead to a better understanding of her works, but also help to unveil the literary resurrection strategy of the contemporary Native American writers on the whole.The dissertation begins with an examination of the evolution of the notion "hybridity" from a biological term to a cultural one, which lays a theoretical foundation of this dissertation. The dissertation then proceeds to examine the hybrid mechanism from four aspects. The second chapter approaches Erdrich’s hybridized feature from the perspective of narration. Her novels are characteristic of the multiple narrative perspectives and linguistic pluralism. The third chapter examines hybridity in Erdrich from a religious perspective and dwells on the context set by religious hybrdization where character, structure and image are examined. The fourth chapter is mainly devoted to a survey of the trickster image in Native mythological tradition and its role in challenging the white ruling orders. As a transgressor, it is uninhibited by social constraints, free to dissolve boundaries and break taboos. The fifth chapter approaches hybridity from gender perspective, focusing on the image of berdache in Erdrich’s novels. Similar with trickster, berdache is a cultural figure with native pecularities, which has become a powerful challenge towards the white colonial system.By applying hybridization techniques, Erdrich refuses to accept the western constructs that are denying and suppressing the identity of Native Americans and their culture. Through her works, Erdrich successfully creates a third space, where her characters, armed with the privilege of hybridization, launch the revolt against the suppressive western ideology and fight for a space of their own. In creating this space, Erdrich acknowledges and encourages the rightful place of hybridization in contemporary multicultural American society. The revelation of Erdrich’s hybrid writing technique is, to a certain extent, helpful for exploring the thoughts and strategies of the contemporary Native American writers from a postcolonial perspective. Contemporary Native American writers have changed by opening itself, also to a broader audience; thus revealing that the narrowness of the canonized definition of "American Indian Literature" could not hold the great diversity of contemporary native fiction.The hybridized discourse Erdrich has applied has also raised critical arguments about the form and function of literature by and about Native Americans within a dominant Western discourse. In the three decades between the publication of the first and the latest in the series, the body of criticism has recognized the implications of Erdrich’s re-examination of the history of Native and non-Native interaction. Thus the critical reception of the novels has often engaged in a debate about (post-) postmodern writing’s political impact, especially because the novel’s dedication to continued formal innovation is married to a deep and wide vision of Native and the U.S. history.更多还原