论《白外套》的政治蕴涵

The Political Implications in Herman Melville's White-Jacket

赫尔曼·麦尔维尔的《白外套》是一部具有政治蕴涵的小说,如实地叙写了19世纪美国水手的生活特征以及海军管理制度中的暴力和非人道行为。叙事者白外套通过自我经历的叙述及其对战舰社会的细致观察表达了一个艺术家对所处时代变幻莫测生活的感悟以及要在个人爱好与社会环境之间建立某种平衡的必要性,并从侧面针砭美国不合理的社会制度,表现出一定的政治意识形态性。本文拟从小说的具体文本意义入手,分析和论述麦尔维尔的政治参与进而审视其独特的民主意识。

White-Jacket contains surprisingly little about an actual voyage and marks a different type of authorship in Herman Melville's documentary aspect of writing.Here,Melville brings together his own bookish references from wide reading and his personal interest in traditional oral culture like sailor yarning,exercising his desire to capture the cultural and political pulse of his time.A careful reading of the fiction reveals that White-Jacket aims at an examination of both the ideal of democracy as well as its corrupt shipboard form,reflecting not only Melville's ambitious literary dreams but also what he articulates in his understanding of flogging.Melville's critique of naval abuses mingled with a humanitarian tone adds much to the novel's political implications.The present paper,therefore,attempts to explore how Melville in the fiction perceives in detail the artificial barriers and compartments that dehumanize society aboard a war ship,rendering a passionate political tract.