关于“家园”的追寻—莫里森小说《天堂》和《一点慈悲》的创伤解读
摘要
作为获得诺贝尔文学奖的第一位美国黑人女作家，托尼·莫里森在美国文学领域占有重要地位。《天堂》探讨了对黑人封闭自我的担忧，对可能的黑人种族主义的警惕，以及黑人必然从排斥走向融合的信念；《一点慈悲》描述了北美殖民地初期蓄奴制对黑人、印第安土著等各类奴隶的伤害。本文试图以凯西·卡露丝，凯·埃里克松与茱蒂·赫曼等学者的创伤理论为支撑，通过分析比较小说《天堂》和《一点慈悲》，探讨莫里森小说中对家园的追寻问题。
第一章为绪论，首先简要介绍托尼·莫里森的生平及其文学成就，小说《天堂》和《一点慈悲》的故事梗概；其次对两部小说的研究成果进行梳理；最后阐述了创伤理论及本文各章主要论点。第二、三、四章为论文的主体部分。第二章分析小说人物遭受的多种形式的创伤，并探讨相似的创伤经历如何成为其构建具有保护性质的地域空间以躲避伤害的重要纽带。第三章分析创伤记忆的持续及残酷性成为小说人物走出创伤的障碍，随之产生的扭曲历史、铲除异己、道德沦丧及依赖他人等症状使得创伤之屋经历异化，保护及关爱的初衷不复存在。第四章阐明走出创伤为受伤者摆脱心理束缚、破除创伤之屋、构建开放包容家园提供了可能。第五章总结了前文对于《天堂》和《一点慈悲》的创伤分析，指出莫里森在两部小说中共同触及的家园追寻主题；认为破除创伤禁锢、释放心理包袱为建立开放和谐的家园创造了可能，并为构建多元包容的美国国家带来启发。论文希望通过对《天堂》和《一点慈悲》的创伤解读，使读者更好地理解莫里森小说中理想家园的构建问题，为研究其他探寻家园主题的文学作品起到抛砖引玉的作用。
As the first African-American writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, ToniMorrison ranks among the most prominent figures in the American literature. Her novelParadise explores the concern of self isolation and racism of the African Americansociety. A Mercy, Morrison’s second latest novel, describes the enslavement suffered byslaves of different races in the early colonial period of the New Continent. Based on thetrauma theory of Cathy Caruth, Kai Erikson, and Judith Herman, this thesis, bycomparing and analyzing Paradise and A Mercy, attempts to explore the search andconstruction of home.
This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction, which isdivided into three parts. The first part is a brief introduction to Toni Morrison and herliterary career, together with the story outlines of Paradise and A Mercy. The second partis a literature review. The third part sets forth the trauma theory and the layout of thisthesis. Chapter Two analyzes various forms of trauma experienced by survivors, andfurther investigates how shared trauma bonds them together to set up a house to seekprotection. Chapter Three argues that the reappearance of traumatic memories displaysits cruelty in preventing the healing process. The trauma syndromes of history distortion,discrimination, moral corruption, and over dependence deprive the house of protectionand care. Chapter Four points out that recovery offers survivors a way to smash thememory trammels so as to construct an open home. Chapter Five presents a summary ofthis study, pointing out that recovery from trauma helps to construct an open home andoffers hope for a dynamic American nation. By analyzing Paradise and A Mercy from theperspective of trauma theory, this thesis intends to help readers to gain betterunderstanding of home search in Morrison’s novels, and start further discussions ofliterary works with the home theme.
第一章为绪论，首先简要介绍托尼·莫里森的生平及其文学成就，小说《天堂》和《一点慈悲》的故事梗概；其次对两部小说的研究成果进行梳理；最后阐述了创伤理论及本文各章主要论点。第二、三、四章为论文的主体部分。第二章分析小说人物遭受的多种形式的创伤，并探讨相似的创伤经历如何成为其构建具有保护性质的地域空间以躲避伤害的重要纽带。第三章分析创伤记忆的持续及残酷性成为小说人物走出创伤的障碍，随之产生的扭曲历史、铲除异己、道德沦丧及依赖他人等症状使得创伤之屋经历异化，保护及关爱的初衷不复存在。第四章阐明走出创伤为受伤者摆脱心理束缚、破除创伤之屋、构建开放包容家园提供了可能。第五章总结了前文对于《天堂》和《一点慈悲》的创伤分析，指出莫里森在两部小说中共同触及的家园追寻主题；认为破除创伤禁锢、释放心理包袱为建立开放和谐的家园创造了可能，并为构建多元包容的美国国家带来启发。论文希望通过对《天堂》和《一点慈悲》的创伤解读，使读者更好地理解莫里森小说中理想家园的构建问题，为研究其他探寻家园主题的文学作品起到抛砖引玉的作用。
As the first African-American writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, ToniMorrison ranks among the most prominent figures in the American literature. Her novelParadise explores the concern of self isolation and racism of the African Americansociety. A Mercy, Morrison’s second latest novel, describes the enslavement suffered byslaves of different races in the early colonial period of the New Continent. Based on thetrauma theory of Cathy Caruth, Kai Erikson, and Judith Herman, this thesis, bycomparing and analyzing Paradise and A Mercy, attempts to explore the search andconstruction of home.
This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction, which isdivided into three parts. The first part is a brief introduction to Toni Morrison and herliterary career, together with the story outlines of Paradise and A Mercy. The second partis a literature review. The third part sets forth the trauma theory and the layout of thisthesis. Chapter Two analyzes various forms of trauma experienced by survivors, andfurther investigates how shared trauma bonds them together to set up a house to seekprotection. Chapter Three argues that the reappearance of traumatic memories displaysits cruelty in preventing the healing process. The trauma syndromes of history distortion,discrimination, moral corruption, and over dependence deprive the house of protectionand care. Chapter Four points out that recovery offers survivors a way to smash thememory trammels so as to construct an open home. Chapter Five presents a summary ofthis study, pointing out that recovery from trauma helps to construct an open home andoffers hope for a dynamic American nation. By analyzing Paradise and A Mercy from theperspective of trauma theory, this thesis intends to help readers to gain betterunderstanding of home search in Morrison’s novels, and start further discussions ofliterary works with the home theme.
引文
Atieh, Majda R.“The Revelation of the Veiled in Toni Morrison’s Paradise: TheWhirling Dervishes in the Harem of the Convent”. MELUS. Vol.36, Issue2,(2011):89-107.
Babb, Read Valerie.“E Pluribus Unum? The American Origins Narrative in ToniMorrison’s A Mercy”. MELUS. Vol.36, Issue2,(2011):147-164.
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge,1994.
Bigsby, C. W. The Second Black Renaissance: Essays in Black Literature. Connecticut:Greenwood Press,1980.
Bouson, J. Brooks. Quiet as It’s Kept: Shame, Trauma, and Race in the Novels of ToniMorrison. New York: State University of New York Press,2000.
Brophy-Warren, Jamin.“A Writer’s Voice: Toni Morrison on Her New Novel, ReadingHer Critics and What Barack Obama’s Win Means to Her”. Wall Street JournalWeekend Journal.7Nov.(2008): W5.
Cantiello, Jessica Wells.“From Pre-Racial to Post-Racial? Reading and Reviewing AMercy in the Age of Obama”. MELUS. Vol.36, Issue2,(2011):165-183.
Carby, Hazel V. Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-AmericanWomen Novelists. London: Oxford University Press,1989.
Carruthers, Peter and Chamberlain, Andrew, ed. Evolution and the Human Mind:Modularity, Language, and Meta-Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge UP,2000.
Caruth, Cathy, ed. Trauma: Explorations in Memory. Baltimore and London: The JohnsHopkins University Press,1995.
Christian, Barbara. Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers.New York: Teachers College Press,1985.
Dobbs, Cynthia.“Diasporic Designs of House, Home, and Haven in Toni Morrison’sParadise”. MELUS. Vol.36, Issue2,(2011):109-126.
Doctorow, E. L. Jack London, Hemingway, and the Constitution: Selected Essays1977-1992. New York: Harcourt,1968.
Felman, Shoshana and Laub, Dori. Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature,Psychoanalysis, and History. New York: Routledge,1992.
Foster, Dennis A.“Trauma and Memory”. Contemporary Literature. Vol.41, Issue4,(2000):740-747.
Fultz, Lucille P, ed. Toni Morrison: Paradise, Love, A Mercy. London: Bloomsbury,2013.
Gates, Henry Louius. Black Literature and Literary Theory. New York: Routledge,1984.
Gauthier, Marni.“The Other Side of Paradise: Toni Morrison’s (Un)Making of MythicHistory”. African American Review. Vol.39, Issue3,(2005):395-414.
Gillespie, Carmen. Critical Companion to Toni Morrison: A Literary Reference to HerLife and Work. New York: Facts On File, Inc.,2008.
Griffith, Johnny R.“In the End is the Beginning: Toni Morrison’s Post-Modern,Post-Ethical Vision of Paradise”. Christianity&Literature. Vol.60, Issue4,(2011):581-610.
Herman, Judith. Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic Books,1992.
Johnson, Erica. Home, Maison, Casa: The Politics of Location in Works by Jean Rhys,Marguerite Duras, and Erminian Dell’Oro. Madison: Fairleign DickinsonUniversity Press,2003.
Kearly, Peter R.“Toni Morrison’s Paradise and the Politics of Community”. Journal ofAmerican&Comparative Cultures. Vol.23, Issue2,(2000):9-16.
LaCapra, Dominick. Writing History, Writing Trauma. Baltimore and London: The JohnsHopkins University Press,2001.
Lubiano, Wahneema, ed. The House That Race Built: Original Essays by Toni Morrison,Angela Y. Davis, Cornel West, and Others on Black Americans and Politics inAmerica Today. New York: Vintage,1998.
Michael, Magall Cornler.“Re-Imagining Agency: Toni Morrison’s Paradise”. AfricanAmerican Review. Vol.36, Issue4,(2002):643-661.
Morrison, Toni. A Mercy. New York: Vintage,2008.——. Paradise. London: Vintage,1999.
Mulrine, Anna.“This side of ‘Paradise’”. U.S. News and World Report. Vol.124, Issue2,(1998):71.
Page, Philip.“Furrowing All the Brows: Interpretation and the Transcendent in ToniMorrison’s Paradise”. African American Review. Vol.35, Issue4,(2001):637-649.
Peach, Linden. Toni Morrison. New York: St. Martin’s Press,1998.
Reed, Andrew.“‘As if word magic had anything to do with the courage it took to be aman’: Black Masculinity in Toni Morrison’s Paradise”. African American Review.Vol.39, Issue4,(2005):527-540.
Rigney, Barbara Hill. The Voices of Toni Morrison. Columbus: Ohio State UniversityPress,1991.
Romero, Channette.“Creating the Beloved Community: Religion, Race, and Nation inToni Morrison’s Paradise”. African American Review. Vol.39, Issue3,(2005):415-430.
Schreiber, Evelyn Jaffe. Race, Trauma, and Home: in the Novels of Toni Morrison.Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press,2010.
Shange, Ntozake.“Interview with Toni Morrison”. American Rag. Nov.(1978):48-52.
Singh, Amritjit, Joseph T. Skerrett Jr., and Robert E. Hogan, ed. Memory, Narrative, andIdentity: New Essays in Ethnic American Literature. Boston: NortheasternUniversity Press,1994.
Solomon, Marion F., and Siegel, Daniel J. ed. Healing Trauma: Attachment, Mind, Body,and Brain. New York: Norton,2003.
Stave, Shirley A. and Tally, Justine, ed. Toni Morrison’s A Mercy: Critical Approaches.Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing,2011.
Tally, Justine, ed. Toni Morrison’s (Hi)stories and Truths. Hamburg: Lit,1999.
Thompson, Bob.“Windows to the Soulful”. Washington Post.4Dec.(2008): C1, C4.
Updike, John.“Dreamy Wilderness: Unmastered Women in Colonial Virginia”. NewYorker. Vol.84, Issue35,(2008):112-113.
Waites, Elizabeth. Trauma and Survival: Post-Traumatic and Dissociative Disorders inWomen. New York: Norton,1993.
Whitehead, Anne. Trauma Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,2004.
Wright, Richard. White Man Listen! New York: Doubleday,1957.
Wyatt, Jean.“Failed Messages, Maternal Loss, and Narrative Form in Toni Morrison’s AMercy”. Modern Fiction Studies. Vol.58, Number1,(2012):39-67.
董鼎山，“美国黑人作家的出版近况”，《读书》，1981年第11期91-98.
杜志卿，“《秀拉》的后现代叙事特征探析”，《外国文学》，2004年第5期80-86.
胡俊，“《一点慈悲》：关于‘家’的建构”，《外国文学评论》，2010年第3期200-210.
尚必武，“创伤·记忆·叙述疗法——评莫里森新作《慈悲》”，《国外文学》，2011年第3期84-93.
王守仁，“爱的乐章——读托妮·莫里森的《爵士乐》”，《当代外国文学》,1995年第3期92-96.
——.“走出过去的阴影——读托妮·莫里森的《心爱的人》”，《外国文学评论》，1994年第1期37-42.
王守仁&吴新云，《性别·种族·文化——托妮·莫里森的小说创作》，北京：北京大学出版社，2004.
翁乐虹，“以音乐作为叙述策略——解读莫里森小说《爵士乐》”，《外国文学评论》，2000年第2期52-62.
修树新，“托妮·莫里森小说中的生存伦理——以《秀拉》和《宠儿》为例”，《外国文学研究》，2012年第2期108-114.
杨金才，“托尼·莫里森在中国的批评与接受（英文）”，《外国文学研究》，2011年第4期50-59.
章汝雯，“《所罗门之歌》中的女性化话语和女权主义话语”，《外国文学》，2005年第5期85-90.
章汝雯，“《最蓝的眼睛》中的话语结构”，《外国文学研究》2004年第4期62-67.
朱云，“疏离、记忆与倾诉——解读《乐园》中的‘创伤之家’”，《当代外国文学》，2011年第1期19-26.
Gates, David.“Original Sins”. New York Times Book Review (28November2008).Online at http://www.nytimes.com (Accessed3January2013).
“The Nobel Prize in Literature1993”. Online at http://www.nobelprize.org (Accessed5July2012).
“Toni Morrison Discusses Her Novel A Mercy.” Online at http://www.orphan.com(Accessed9December2012).
Babb, Read Valerie.“E Pluribus Unum? The American Origins Narrative in ToniMorrison’s A Mercy”. MELUS. Vol.36, Issue2,(2011):147-164.
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge,1994.
Bigsby, C. W. The Second Black Renaissance: Essays in Black Literature. Connecticut:Greenwood Press,1980.
Bouson, J. Brooks. Quiet as It’s Kept: Shame, Trauma, and Race in the Novels of ToniMorrison. New York: State University of New York Press,2000.
Brophy-Warren, Jamin.“A Writer’s Voice: Toni Morrison on Her New Novel, ReadingHer Critics and What Barack Obama’s Win Means to Her”. Wall Street JournalWeekend Journal.7Nov.(2008): W5.
Cantiello, Jessica Wells.“From Pre-Racial to Post-Racial? Reading and Reviewing AMercy in the Age of Obama”. MELUS. Vol.36, Issue2,(2011):165-183.
Carby, Hazel V. Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-AmericanWomen Novelists. London: Oxford University Press,1989.
Carruthers, Peter and Chamberlain, Andrew, ed. Evolution and the Human Mind:Modularity, Language, and Meta-Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge UP,2000.
Caruth, Cathy, ed. Trauma: Explorations in Memory. Baltimore and London: The JohnsHopkins University Press,1995.
Christian, Barbara. Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers.New York: Teachers College Press,1985.
Dobbs, Cynthia.“Diasporic Designs of House, Home, and Haven in Toni Morrison’sParadise”. MELUS. Vol.36, Issue2,(2011):109-126.
Doctorow, E. L. Jack London, Hemingway, and the Constitution: Selected Essays1977-1992. New York: Harcourt,1968.
Felman, Shoshana and Laub, Dori. Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature,Psychoanalysis, and History. New York: Routledge,1992.
Foster, Dennis A.“Trauma and Memory”. Contemporary Literature. Vol.41, Issue4,(2000):740-747.
Fultz, Lucille P, ed. Toni Morrison: Paradise, Love, A Mercy. London: Bloomsbury,2013.
Gates, Henry Louius. Black Literature and Literary Theory. New York: Routledge,1984.
Gauthier, Marni.“The Other Side of Paradise: Toni Morrison’s (Un)Making of MythicHistory”. African American Review. Vol.39, Issue3,(2005):395-414.
Gillespie, Carmen. Critical Companion to Toni Morrison: A Literary Reference to HerLife and Work. New York: Facts On File, Inc.,2008.
Griffith, Johnny R.“In the End is the Beginning: Toni Morrison’s Post-Modern,Post-Ethical Vision of Paradise”. Christianity&Literature. Vol.60, Issue4,(2011):581-610.
Herman, Judith. Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic Books,1992.
Johnson, Erica. Home, Maison, Casa: The Politics of Location in Works by Jean Rhys,Marguerite Duras, and Erminian Dell’Oro. Madison: Fairleign DickinsonUniversity Press,2003.
Kearly, Peter R.“Toni Morrison’s Paradise and the Politics of Community”. Journal ofAmerican&Comparative Cultures. Vol.23, Issue2,(2000):9-16.
LaCapra, Dominick. Writing History, Writing Trauma. Baltimore and London: The JohnsHopkins University Press,2001.
Lubiano, Wahneema, ed. The House That Race Built: Original Essays by Toni Morrison,Angela Y. Davis, Cornel West, and Others on Black Americans and Politics inAmerica Today. New York: Vintage,1998.
Michael, Magall Cornler.“Re-Imagining Agency: Toni Morrison’s Paradise”. AfricanAmerican Review. Vol.36, Issue4,(2002):643-661.
Morrison, Toni. A Mercy. New York: Vintage,2008.——. Paradise. London: Vintage,1999.
Mulrine, Anna.“This side of ‘Paradise’”. U.S. News and World Report. Vol.124, Issue2,(1998):71.
Page, Philip.“Furrowing All the Brows: Interpretation and the Transcendent in ToniMorrison’s Paradise”. African American Review. Vol.35, Issue4,(2001):637-649.
Peach, Linden. Toni Morrison. New York: St. Martin’s Press,1998.
Reed, Andrew.“‘As if word magic had anything to do with the courage it took to be aman’: Black Masculinity in Toni Morrison’s Paradise”. African American Review.Vol.39, Issue4,(2005):527-540.
Rigney, Barbara Hill. The Voices of Toni Morrison. Columbus: Ohio State UniversityPress,1991.
Romero, Channette.“Creating the Beloved Community: Religion, Race, and Nation inToni Morrison’s Paradise”. African American Review. Vol.39, Issue3,(2005):415-430.
Schreiber, Evelyn Jaffe. Race, Trauma, and Home: in the Novels of Toni Morrison.Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press,2010.
Shange, Ntozake.“Interview with Toni Morrison”. American Rag. Nov.(1978):48-52.
Singh, Amritjit, Joseph T. Skerrett Jr., and Robert E. Hogan, ed. Memory, Narrative, andIdentity: New Essays in Ethnic American Literature. Boston: NortheasternUniversity Press,1994.
Solomon, Marion F., and Siegel, Daniel J. ed. Healing Trauma: Attachment, Mind, Body,and Brain. New York: Norton,2003.
Stave, Shirley A. and Tally, Justine, ed. Toni Morrison’s A Mercy: Critical Approaches.Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing,2011.
Tally, Justine, ed. Toni Morrison’s (Hi)stories and Truths. Hamburg: Lit,1999.
Thompson, Bob.“Windows to the Soulful”. Washington Post.4Dec.(2008): C1, C4.
Updike, John.“Dreamy Wilderness: Unmastered Women in Colonial Virginia”. NewYorker. Vol.84, Issue35,(2008):112-113.
Waites, Elizabeth. Trauma and Survival: Post-Traumatic and Dissociative Disorders inWomen. New York: Norton,1993.
Whitehead, Anne. Trauma Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,2004.
Wright, Richard. White Man Listen! New York: Doubleday,1957.
Wyatt, Jean.“Failed Messages, Maternal Loss, and Narrative Form in Toni Morrison’s AMercy”. Modern Fiction Studies. Vol.58, Number1,(2012):39-67.
董鼎山，“美国黑人作家的出版近况”，《读书》，1981年第11期91-98.
杜志卿，“《秀拉》的后现代叙事特征探析”，《外国文学》，2004年第5期80-86.
胡俊，“《一点慈悲》：关于‘家’的建构”，《外国文学评论》，2010年第3期200-210.
尚必武，“创伤·记忆·叙述疗法——评莫里森新作《慈悲》”，《国外文学》，2011年第3期84-93.
王守仁，“爱的乐章——读托妮·莫里森的《爵士乐》”，《当代外国文学》,1995年第3期92-96.
——.“走出过去的阴影——读托妮·莫里森的《心爱的人》”，《外国文学评论》，1994年第1期37-42.
王守仁&吴新云，《性别·种族·文化——托妮·莫里森的小说创作》，北京：北京大学出版社，2004.
翁乐虹，“以音乐作为叙述策略——解读莫里森小说《爵士乐》”，《外国文学评论》，2000年第2期52-62.
修树新，“托妮·莫里森小说中的生存伦理——以《秀拉》和《宠儿》为例”，《外国文学研究》，2012年第2期108-114.
杨金才，“托尼·莫里森在中国的批评与接受（英文）”，《外国文学研究》，2011年第4期50-59.
章汝雯，“《所罗门之歌》中的女性化话语和女权主义话语”，《外国文学》，2005年第5期85-90.
章汝雯，“《最蓝的眼睛》中的话语结构”，《外国文学研究》2004年第4期62-67.
朱云，“疏离、记忆与倾诉——解读《乐园》中的‘创伤之家’”，《当代外国文学》，2011年第1期19-26.
Gates, David.“Original Sins”. New York Times Book Review (28November2008).Online at http://www.nytimes.com (Accessed3January2013).
“The Nobel Prize in Literature1993”. Online at http://www.nobelprize.org (Accessed5July2012).
“Toni Morrison Discusses Her Novel A Mercy.” Online at http://www.orphan.com(Accessed9December2012).