沉默的颠覆:《迈克尔·K的生活和时代》的后殖民解读

Silence as Subversion:A Post-colonial Reading of Coetzee's Life and Times of Michael K

库切的小说《迈克尔·K的生活和时代》讲述了一个南非黑人在战争中不断逃离各种残暴势力的压迫和掌控的故事。小说主人公迈克尔·K的沉默是最显著的特征。通过分析这个人物形象的塑造,探索沉默的意义,揭示了库切的叙事策略:保持殖民地他者的他者性,使得他者的沉默能够超越语言而存在,这样他就能够游走于语言的定义之外,也就逃离了通过语言暴力掌控人们思想的权力系统。他者的沉默是无声的语言,是抵抗和消解殖民话语的力量。最后迈克尔·K与大地融为一体昭示了人类获得自由的可能性。

＂J.M.Coetzee＇s novel Life and Times of Michael K is set against a background of the Civil War in South Africa.It depicts a humble black man who constantly tries to escape from being oppressed and controlled by various forms of domination such as the government and the armies.Through analyzing the characteristics of the figure,this thesis strives to probe the function of silence of the oppressed protagonist,Michael K,and to reveal Coetzee＇s representation strategy——silence is the protection of the Other＇s otherness in a colony.By being silent,the Other is able to disengage himself from being registered in the linguistic systems,hence,eluding the oppressions of the systems and institutions that dominate people＇s thoughts through violence of language.Silence of the Other is another form of language,and it is the power to resist and deconstruct the power of colonial discourse.At the end of the novel,K is incorporated with nature,which implies an outlet or alternative to the reality and projects a future for the arrival of a possible freedom.