“无声”的悲剧
摘要
美国黑人作家理查德·赖特的代表作《土生子》是美国文学史上的一座里程碑。它不仅成为文学领域的经典之作,也成为文化领域的重要研究课题。本文将作品置于斯皮瓦克的属下理论框架内,围绕小说中不同人物的属下性这个主题对其进行解读。
斯皮瓦克的属下理论主要关注后殖民背景下属下的生存状况和差异性,指出属下男性在主流文化中失声,而属下女性则在主流文化和父权文化的交织中失声。此外,斯皮瓦克还指出了属下不能被代言的问题。
本文运用属下理论,分别结合《土生子》中属下男性,属下女性的具体处境,对他们的属下性进行了解读。通过分析发现,虽然小说主人公Bigger具有属下性,但其身上同时也具有抵制主流文化的特性,一直在寻求独立自我以便发出自己的声音,由于缺乏听者,他发声的努力以失败告终。此外,属下女性在主流文化和父权文化的意识建构中失去了其主体意识,也没有机会发声。小说中的知识分子试图为身为属下的Bigger代言,在代言过程中由于其自身意识的掺杂和交流上的障碍,最终没有达到他们代言的目的。属下主体意识的缺失和发声的失败,最终导致了小说中属下悲剧性的命运。
本文通过对小说的属下理论解读,试图说明:面对主流文化的侵袭,属下须保持其自我意识的独立性,维护其自己发声的权利;主流文化也须给予属下足够的发声空间并倾听他们的声音。
African-American writer Richard Wright’s masterpiece Native Son is a milestone in the history of American literature. Its far-reaching impact enables it not only to be a classical literary work, but also a primary research issue in cultural studies. This thesis aims at carrying a Subaltern study of Native Son by placing it into the framework of Gayatri C. Spivak’s Subaltern theory.
Spivak’s Subaltern theory mainly focuses on the existence and diversity of the Subaltern from the postcolonial perspective. It points out that male subalterns utter no voices under the mainstream culture, while female subalterns are voiceless as well when facing the mainstream culture and the patriarchal culture. Spivak also points out that the Subaltern cannot be spoken for.
Based on the Subaltern theory, this thesis analyzes the subalternity of the main characters in Native Son and finds that the hero Bigger is both a victim of his own subalternity and a rebel against the mainstream culture. He is persistent in seeking his self-independence to utter his own voices, but nobody is willing to be his listeners. Likewise, the female blacks have no opportunity to voice for their self-consciousness lost by the invasion of heterogeneous cultures. On the other hand, the intellectuals such as Jan and Max make an attempt to speak for Bigger. Nonetheless, they fail to achieve their goals due to the communication barriers mingled with their consciousness. The loss of self-consciousness and their voicelessness ultimately lead to the tragic fates of the subalterns.
This interpretation of the subalternity of the main characters of Native Son indicates that the subalterns should keep their independence of self-consciousness in the face of the mainstream culture to maintain the right of uttering their voices, while the mainstream culture should give subalterns sufficient space to utter their voices rather than ignore their voices.
斯皮瓦克的属下理论主要关注后殖民背景下属下的生存状况和差异性,指出属下男性在主流文化中失声,而属下女性则在主流文化和父权文化的交织中失声。此外,斯皮瓦克还指出了属下不能被代言的问题。
本文运用属下理论,分别结合《土生子》中属下男性,属下女性的具体处境,对他们的属下性进行了解读。通过分析发现,虽然小说主人公Bigger具有属下性,但其身上同时也具有抵制主流文化的特性,一直在寻求独立自我以便发出自己的声音,由于缺乏听者,他发声的努力以失败告终。此外,属下女性在主流文化和父权文化的意识建构中失去了其主体意识,也没有机会发声。小说中的知识分子试图为身为属下的Bigger代言,在代言过程中由于其自身意识的掺杂和交流上的障碍,最终没有达到他们代言的目的。属下主体意识的缺失和发声的失败,最终导致了小说中属下悲剧性的命运。
本文通过对小说的属下理论解读,试图说明:面对主流文化的侵袭,属下须保持其自我意识的独立性,维护其自己发声的权利;主流文化也须给予属下足够的发声空间并倾听他们的声音。
African-American writer Richard Wright’s masterpiece Native Son is a milestone in the history of American literature. Its far-reaching impact enables it not only to be a classical literary work, but also a primary research issue in cultural studies. This thesis aims at carrying a Subaltern study of Native Son by placing it into the framework of Gayatri C. Spivak’s Subaltern theory.
Spivak’s Subaltern theory mainly focuses on the existence and diversity of the Subaltern from the postcolonial perspective. It points out that male subalterns utter no voices under the mainstream culture, while female subalterns are voiceless as well when facing the mainstream culture and the patriarchal culture. Spivak also points out that the Subaltern cannot be spoken for.
Based on the Subaltern theory, this thesis analyzes the subalternity of the main characters in Native Son and finds that the hero Bigger is both a victim of his own subalternity and a rebel against the mainstream culture. He is persistent in seeking his self-independence to utter his own voices, but nobody is willing to be his listeners. Likewise, the female blacks have no opportunity to voice for their self-consciousness lost by the invasion of heterogeneous cultures. On the other hand, the intellectuals such as Jan and Max make an attempt to speak for Bigger. Nonetheless, they fail to achieve their goals due to the communication barriers mingled with their consciousness. The loss of self-consciousness and their voicelessness ultimately lead to the tragic fates of the subalterns.
This interpretation of the subalternity of the main characters of Native Son indicates that the subalterns should keep their independence of self-consciousness in the face of the mainstream culture to maintain the right of uttering their voices, while the mainstream culture should give subalterns sufficient space to utter their voices rather than ignore their voices.
引文
Baldwin, James.“Notes of Native Son.”Everybody’s Protest Novel. ed. Mark Crispen. Boston: Beacon Press, 1943. Print.
Castle, Gregory ed. Postcolonial Discourse: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. Print.
Cesaire, Aime. Discourse on Colonialism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2001. Print.
Chu, Qingyan and Shao, Zongyin.“From a Naturalistic Victim to a Realistic New Negro—On the Development of the Hero in Native Son.”Journal of Liaoning University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) 5 (2004): 136-40. Print. (初青艳,邵宗音,从自然主义受害者到现实主义新黑人—论《土生子》中
主人公的成长历程.《辽宁大学学报(哲学社会科学版)》,2004年第5期,136-40.)
Fan, Guilan.“On Artistic Image of Black People in Native Son.”Journal of Northwest Normal University (Social Science) 5 (2003): 106-09. Print. (范桂兰,论《土生子》中的新黑人艺术形象.《西北师大学报(社会科学版)》,2003年第5期,106-09.)
Fan, Guilan. Richard Wright’s Native Son and Its New Black Hero. Diss. Northwest Normal University, 2003. (范桂兰,论理查·赖特的《土生子》及其新黑人艺术形象.西北师范大学,2003年.)
Gramsci, A. Selections from Prison Notebooks. New York: International Publishers, 1971. Print.
Guha, R.&Spivak, G..C. Selected Subaltern Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Print.
Guttmann, Sondra. Rereading Violence Against Women in Native Son: Texas Studies in Literature and Language. Texas: University of Texas Press, 2004. Print.
Hamilton, Shara. Wright’s Native Son. Philadelphia: Heldref Publications, 1997. Print.
Harris, Trudier. Native Son and Foreign Daughters: New Essays on Native Son. England: Cambridge Press, 1990. Print.
Hawley, John C. ed. Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001. Print.
Hooks, Bell.“Marginality as a Site of Resistance.”in R. Ferguson et al. (eds) Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1990. Print.
Howe, Irving.“Black Boys and Native Sons.”Dissent 10 (1963): 22-3. Print.
Jaworski, Adam. The power of silence: social and pragmatic perspectives. New York: SAGE Publications, Inv. 1993. Print.
Joshi, Priya. In Another Country: Colonialism, Culture, and the English Novel in India. New York: Columbia UP, 2002. Print.
Kinnamon, Keneth. New Essays on Native Son: Introduction. Beijing: Peking University, 1997. Print.
Kuang, Ying. On Racism and Its Vicious Double-edged Effect in Native Son. Diss. Jilin University, 2007. (匡颖,论《土生子》中的种族主义及其双重恶性效应.吉林大学,2007年.)
Leon, de Kock.“Interview With Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: New Nation Writers Conference in South Africa.”A Review of International English Literature, 3 (1992): 29-47. Print.
Lewis, Reina and Sara Mills eds. Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Li, Ning.“Bigger Thomas’Alienation: The Character of the Protagonist in Novel Native Son.”Journal of Hubei Normal University (Philosophy and Social Science) 6 (2005): 33-5. Print. (李宁,别格的异化:《土生子》中男主人公的性格特征.《湖北师范学院学(哲学社会科学版)》,2005年第6期,33-5.)
Liu, DanLi. Bigger—The New Black Hero in Richard Wright’s Native Son. Diss.Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 2007. (刘丹黎,别格—理查·奈特《土生子》中的新黑人英雄.华中科技大学,2007年.)
Liukkonen, Petri.“Richard (Nathaniel) Wright.”Books and Writers. 2008. Web..
Marrouchi, Mustapha.“Counternarratives, Recoveries, Refusals.”in Paul A. Bove. Edward Said and the Work of the Critic: Speaking Truth to Power. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000. Print.
Moore-Gilbert, Bart. Post-colonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics. New York: Verso, 1997. Print.
Morton, S. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. London and New York, 2003. Print. Page, James A. English Journal 5 (1973): 714. Print.
Selby, John.“The Literary Guidepost”Ashland Daily Independent. 3 March, 1940: 4. Print.
Sharp, Joanne. Geographies of Postcolonialism. New York: SAGE Publications, 2008. Print.
Showalter, E. A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing, Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004. Print.
Smethurst, James The Gothic and African American Literary Ideology in Native Son. Madison: African American Review, 2001. Print.
Spivak, G. C, Can the Subaltern Speak?: Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. London: In Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, 1987. Print.
Spivak, G.C.“Race before racism: the disappearance of the American.”In Paul A.Bove. Edward Said and the Work of the Critics: Speaking Truth to Power. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000. Print.
Spivak, G.C. An Unfashionable Grammatology: Colonial Discourse Revisited. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000. Print.
Spivak, G.C. Death of a Discipline. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Print.
Spivak, G.C. The Post-Colonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues. ed. Sarah Harasym. New York & London: Routledge, 1990. Print.
Spivak, G.C. The Spivak Reader. eds. Donna Landry and Gerald Maclean. New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.
Spivak, G.C. Thinking Academic Freedom in Gendered Post—Coloniality. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 1992. Print.
Spivak,G.C. From Deconstruction to the Critique of Globalization. eds. Chen Yongguo&Lai Lili, Beijing: Peking University Press, 2007. Print.
Su, Dongliang.“Tragic Fate of a Desire Subject”Foreign Language and Literature 3 (2008):193-9. Print. (苏冬凉,《土生子》中视觉的象征意义.《长春工业大学学报(社会科学版)》,2005年第3期,78-80.)
Tragered, Oliver. Sexual Politics in America. New York: Facts on File,1994. Print.
Ward, Jerry W.“Everybody’s Protest Novel: the Era of Richard Wright.”The African American Novel. ed. Maryemma Graham. England: Cambrige University Press, 2004. Print.
Wright, Richard. Black Boy. New York: Harper Collins, 1998. Print.
Wright, Richard. How Bigger Was Born. New York: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.
Wright, Richard. Native Son. London: Chaucer Press, 1986. Print.
Yang, Jianguo.“The Human Nature in Animal.”Foreign Language Education 4 (2007): 78-82. (杨建国,“动物”身上的人性.《外语教学》,2007年第4期,78-82.)
Young, R. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. Print.
艾勒克·博埃默:《殖民与后殖民文学》(盛宁,韩敏中译),沈阳:辽宁教育出版社,1995.
弗朗克·法农:《黑皮肤,白面具》,南京:译林出版社,1952.
顾嘉祖:《跨文化交际—外国语言文学中的隐蔽文化》,南京:南京师范大学出版社,2000.
刘健芝,许兆麟选编:《庶民研究》,北京:中央编译出版社,2002.
李应志:解构的文化政治实践—斯皮瓦克后殖民文化批评研究,北京:北京师范大学出版社,2002.
罗钢,刘象愚:《后殖民主义文化理论》,北京:中国社会学出版社,1999.
加里特里·斯皮瓦克:《三位女性的文本以及对帝国主义的批判》杨乃乔等译《后殖民批评》,北京:北京大学出版社,2001.
陶家俊:“价值、性别和反认同政治”,《四川外语学院学报》2007年7月第4期.
陶家俊:《思想认同的焦虑》,北京:中国社会科学出版社,2007.
王晓路,“文化政治与文化批评—斯皮瓦克的文学观解读”,《外国文学》2004年9月第五期.
王政:《越界:跨文化女权实践》,天津:天津人民出版社,2004.
周春:《美国黑人女性主义批评研究》,四川:四川大学出版社,2007
朱刚:《二十世纪西方文艺批评理论》,上海:上海外语教育出版社,2000.
Castle, Gregory ed. Postcolonial Discourse: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. Print.
Cesaire, Aime. Discourse on Colonialism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2001. Print.
Chu, Qingyan and Shao, Zongyin.“From a Naturalistic Victim to a Realistic New Negro—On the Development of the Hero in Native Son.”Journal of Liaoning University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) 5 (2004): 136-40. Print. (初青艳,邵宗音,从自然主义受害者到现实主义新黑人—论《土生子》中
主人公的成长历程.《辽宁大学学报(哲学社会科学版)》,2004年第5期,136-40.)
Fan, Guilan.“On Artistic Image of Black People in Native Son.”Journal of Northwest Normal University (Social Science) 5 (2003): 106-09. Print. (范桂兰,论《土生子》中的新黑人艺术形象.《西北师大学报(社会科学版)》,2003年第5期,106-09.)
Fan, Guilan. Richard Wright’s Native Son and Its New Black Hero. Diss. Northwest Normal University, 2003. (范桂兰,论理查·赖特的《土生子》及其新黑人艺术形象.西北师范大学,2003年.)
Gramsci, A. Selections from Prison Notebooks. New York: International Publishers, 1971. Print.
Guha, R.&Spivak, G..C. Selected Subaltern Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Print.
Guttmann, Sondra. Rereading Violence Against Women in Native Son: Texas Studies in Literature and Language. Texas: University of Texas Press, 2004. Print.
Hamilton, Shara. Wright’s Native Son. Philadelphia: Heldref Publications, 1997. Print.
Harris, Trudier. Native Son and Foreign Daughters: New Essays on Native Son. England: Cambridge Press, 1990. Print.
Hawley, John C. ed. Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001. Print.
Hooks, Bell.“Marginality as a Site of Resistance.”in R. Ferguson et al. (eds) Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1990. Print.
Howe, Irving.“Black Boys and Native Sons.”Dissent 10 (1963): 22-3. Print.
Jaworski, Adam. The power of silence: social and pragmatic perspectives. New York: SAGE Publications, Inv. 1993. Print.
Joshi, Priya. In Another Country: Colonialism, Culture, and the English Novel in India. New York: Columbia UP, 2002. Print.
Kinnamon, Keneth. New Essays on Native Son: Introduction. Beijing: Peking University, 1997. Print.
Kuang, Ying. On Racism and Its Vicious Double-edged Effect in Native Son. Diss. Jilin University, 2007. (匡颖,论《土生子》中的种族主义及其双重恶性效应.吉林大学,2007年.)
Leon, de Kock.“Interview With Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: New Nation Writers Conference in South Africa.”A Review of International English Literature, 3 (1992): 29-47. Print.
Lewis, Reina and Sara Mills eds. Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Li, Ning.“Bigger Thomas’Alienation: The Character of the Protagonist in Novel Native Son.”Journal of Hubei Normal University (Philosophy and Social Science) 6 (2005): 33-5. Print. (李宁,别格的异化:《土生子》中男主人公的性格特征.《湖北师范学院学(哲学社会科学版)》,2005年第6期,33-5.)
Liu, DanLi. Bigger—The New Black Hero in Richard Wright’s Native Son. Diss.Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 2007. (刘丹黎,别格—理查·奈特《土生子》中的新黑人英雄.华中科技大学,2007年.)
Liukkonen, Petri.“Richard (Nathaniel) Wright.”Books and Writers. 2008. Web.
Marrouchi, Mustapha.“Counternarratives, Recoveries, Refusals.”in Paul A. Bove. Edward Said and the Work of the Critic: Speaking Truth to Power. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000. Print.
Moore-Gilbert, Bart. Post-colonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics. New York: Verso, 1997. Print.
Morton, S. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. London and New York, 2003. Print. Page, James A. English Journal 5 (1973): 714. Print.
Selby, John.“The Literary Guidepost”Ashland Daily Independent. 3 March, 1940: 4. Print.
Sharp, Joanne. Geographies of Postcolonialism. New York: SAGE Publications, 2008. Print.
Showalter, E. A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing, Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004. Print.
Smethurst, James The Gothic and African American Literary Ideology in Native Son. Madison: African American Review, 2001. Print.
Spivak, G. C, Can the Subaltern Speak?: Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. London: In Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, 1987. Print.
Spivak, G.C.“Race before racism: the disappearance of the American.”In Paul A.Bove. Edward Said and the Work of the Critics: Speaking Truth to Power. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000. Print.
Spivak, G.C. An Unfashionable Grammatology: Colonial Discourse Revisited. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000. Print.
Spivak, G.C. Death of a Discipline. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Print.
Spivak, G.C. The Post-Colonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues. ed. Sarah Harasym. New York & London: Routledge, 1990. Print.
Spivak, G.C. The Spivak Reader. eds. Donna Landry and Gerald Maclean. New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.
Spivak, G.C. Thinking Academic Freedom in Gendered Post—Coloniality. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 1992. Print.
Spivak,G.C. From Deconstruction to the Critique of Globalization. eds. Chen Yongguo&Lai Lili, Beijing: Peking University Press, 2007. Print.
Su, Dongliang.“Tragic Fate of a Desire Subject”Foreign Language and Literature 3 (2008):193-9. Print. (苏冬凉,《土生子》中视觉的象征意义.《长春工业大学学报(社会科学版)》,2005年第3期,78-80.)
Tragered, Oliver. Sexual Politics in America. New York: Facts on File,1994. Print.
Ward, Jerry W.“Everybody’s Protest Novel: the Era of Richard Wright.”The African American Novel. ed. Maryemma Graham. England: Cambrige University Press, 2004. Print.
Wright, Richard. Black Boy. New York: Harper Collins, 1998. Print.
Wright, Richard. How Bigger Was Born. New York: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.
Wright, Richard. Native Son. London: Chaucer Press, 1986. Print.
Yang, Jianguo.“The Human Nature in Animal.”Foreign Language Education 4 (2007): 78-82. (杨建国,“动物”身上的人性.《外语教学》,2007年第4期,78-82.)
Young, R. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. Print.
艾勒克·博埃默:《殖民与后殖民文学》(盛宁,韩敏中译),沈阳:辽宁教育出版社,1995.
弗朗克·法农:《黑皮肤,白面具》,南京:译林出版社,1952.
顾嘉祖:《跨文化交际—外国语言文学中的隐蔽文化》,南京:南京师范大学出版社,2000.
刘健芝,许兆麟选编:《庶民研究》,北京:中央编译出版社,2002.
李应志:解构的文化政治实践—斯皮瓦克后殖民文化批评研究,北京:北京师范大学出版社,2002.
罗钢,刘象愚:《后殖民主义文化理论》,北京:中国社会学出版社,1999.
加里特里·斯皮瓦克:《三位女性的文本以及对帝国主义的批判》杨乃乔等译《后殖民批评》,北京:北京大学出版社,2001.
陶家俊:“价值、性别和反认同政治”,《四川外语学院学报》2007年7月第4期.
陶家俊:《思想认同的焦虑》,北京:中国社会科学出版社,2007.
王晓路,“文化政治与文化批评—斯皮瓦克的文学观解读”,《外国文学》2004年9月第五期.
王政:《越界:跨文化女权实践》,天津:天津人民出版社,2004.
周春:《美国黑人女性主义批评研究》,四川:四川大学出版社,2007
朱刚:《二十世纪西方文艺批评理论》,上海:上海外语教育出版社,2000.