莫里森作品的历史记忆和身份危机

Historical Memory and Identity Crisis in Toni Morrison’s Fiction

本文对莫里森的三部小说《所罗门之歌》、《宠儿》和《爵士乐》作了详细的文本分析,认为历史记忆给身份的最终确立提供了一定的可能性,但是它的直接结果是身份危机,而不是主体性的建立。《所罗门之歌》里,历史记忆造成人物的心理创伤,形成自我膨胀的极端性格,身份危机不可避免。《宠儿》里,命名系统的缺失象征着身份的支离破碎,空间意象成为身份危机的物质载体。《爵士乐》里,语言的虚构性和历史的文本性无处不在,如果不能理性地对待现实与想象的关系,个人和族裔文化身份就会陷入危机之中。通过这三部小说,莫里森对黑人民族的身份建构进行了理性思考和不懈探索。

Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Beloved and Jazz show that historical memory results in identity crisis rather than shaping subjectivity. In Song of Solomon, memories of the past cause spiritual traumas that lead to self-aggrandizement. In Beloved, the lack of a naming system symbolizes the loss of identity. In Jazz, the author addresses the fictionality of language and the textuality of history, suggesting that imagination and reality should be treated rationally in order to avoid personal and ethnic identity crisis. With these novels, Morrison has pursued a rational, persistent quest for the African American identity.