监禁与疯癫——解读伯尼斯·鲁本思作品中的替罪羊形象

Imprisonment and Madness: Scapegoat Motif in Bernice Ruben’s Works

本文解析了当代英国犹太女作家伯尼斯·鲁本思的两部代表性小说中的替罪羊形象,指出正是这种替罪羊身份决定了主人公悲剧性的人生。《入选者》中的男主人公是犹太教祭祀意义上的替罪羊,为家庭的失败而受难;《五年刑期》中的女主人公是社会意义上的替罪羊,在替罪羊机制下成为机构性权力体制的牺牲品。两种替罪羊的产生机制和功能效用有所不同,前者处于宗教传统和家庭权威的双重支配之下,在受难的同时又暗含着救赎的希望,后者在替罪羊机制和机构性权力体制的合力夹击下,在受过中必然走向毁灭以维系团体的平衡。然而从另一方面来看,替罪羊身份带给个体的生存境况却是相似的,他们在受难中崩溃,在监禁下疯癫。本文旨在阐述替罪羊身份给个体造成的监禁与疯癫的生存困境,并由此解码作家的“人类生存”关怀。

The present paper analyzes the scapegoat motif in two representative novels of contemporary Jewish woman writer Bernice Rubens with the indication that it is this scapegoat identity that determines the characters＇ tragic life. The male character in The Elected Member, the scapegoat in the sense of Jewish sacrifice ritual, shoulders suffering for the familial failure; the female character in A Five Year Sentence, the scapegoat in the social sense, becomes the victim of the institutional power system under the scapegoat mechanism. Different are the generating forces and functions of these two kinds of scapegoats ： the former, under the double control of religious tradition and familial authority, contains the hope of salvation in suffering; the latter, under the power of Scapegoat Mechanism and institutional power manipulation, is destined to destruction in suffering to maintain the balance of the group. However, the existential conditions brought upon the individual by scapegoat identity are similar; they collapse in suffering and become mad in imprisonment. The present paper aims at elaborating the existential plight, imprisonment and madness brought upon by the scapegoat identity, hence to manifest the novelist＇s ＂human concern＂.