炫耀式消费:身份的诉求——解析《美国悲剧》中的消费主义

Conspicuous consumption:pursuit for social status:Analysis of consumerism in "An American Tragedy"

采用了文本细读与经济学、社会学领域关于消费主义理论相结合的研究方法,旨在探索以符号崇拜为特征的消费主义对心理的异化作用。通过解析作品中的消费主义,特别是炫耀式消费,认为作品主人公对被赋予了符号价值的有形商品的追求,实质上是对豪华消费品所展示出的拥有者无形身份、地位的心理诉求。这种明显的非理性消费的消极作用才是导致"悲剧"的深层根源,这为我国目前发展经济、创建和谐社会提供了警示作用。

By employing consumerism theory of Veblen and analyzing the text of the novel, it is revealed that the alienated influence of consumerism featured by sign fetishism directs the Americans under consumer culture circumstances to endless circle of pursuing psychological satisfaction by obsessing sign values of commodities. A conclusion can be drawn that the hidden desire to exhibit the intangible social position through those tangible luxuries is actually a concrete way to acquire and maintain social status. The destructive impacts of such distorted and pathological psychological resort count for the tragedy of the protagnist, which serves as a warning for the development of economy and harmonious society.