凝视下的沉沦：读格林《问题的核心》

The Fall under Gaze:a Reading of Greene's The Heart of the Matter

本文以福柯关于凝视的权力机制的分析为理论出发点,解读格林的小说《问题的核心》,认为该书关注的焦点是人性在现代社会的异化与扭曲。芒人公斯科比不能泯灭自身的人性来充当权力体制机器上的一个完美零件,从凝视者沦为被凝视者。在无所不在的、匿名的、他人的注视中,斯科比逐渐沉沦为一个渎神者、罪犯,封闭的西非殖民地小社会成为一座福柯式的"圆形监狱。"更有甚者,斯科比的困境不仅仅是他个人的悲剧,也浓缩地反映了这座"圆形监狱"内每个人的处境。每个人都在他人的注视中沉沦和异化。每个人都和斯科比一样,既是凝视权力的享有者和支持者,也是凝视目光的受害者。个人在现代权力制度中的孤独与异化被深刻地表现出来。

This article applies Foucault's analysis of the gazing power to the reading of Greene's novel The Heart of the Matter,arguing that its major concern is the alienation and twist of human nature in modern society.The hero Scobie won't sacrifice his human nature to serve as a cold-blooded accessory in the power machine and falls from a gazer to the gazed.Under the omnipresent and anonymous gaze of others,Scobie degenerates into a profane Catholic and criminal,while the small west-African colony becomes a Foucaultian panopticon.Furthermore,his tragedy is not his own,but that of all the others in this panopticon.Each person becomes degenerated and alienated under others' gaze.Each,like Scobie,is both victimizer and victim of the gazing power.The isolation and alienation of individuals within modern power system is profoundly portrayed.