《黑暗深处》的空间表征

The Spatial Representation in Heart of Darkness

康拉德在《黑暗深处》中,将他本人的刚果经历转化为马洛的非洲之旅。在这两种经验的互动-转换的过程中,帝国-反帝国的空间表征发挥了重要的叙事功能,并进而影响到作者的话语策略、修辞手段和道德立场。通过马洛的非洲之旅,作家既无可奈何地宣告了世界的"去魅化",又试图通过对刚果河的"再魅化"来对非洲大陆实行补偿和救赎;既崇拜库尔茨身上残存的冒险-探索精神,又拒斥与之相关的帝国主义行径,并对之进行了遣责和批判。马洛的旅行不是身体在空间中简单的位移和重复运动,而是灵魂经历的一种仪式性升华。

In his Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad transforms his own experience in Congo into Malow’s journey to Africa. In the interaction between the two experiences, the imperial and antiimperial spatial representations perform an important narratives function and influence the author’s discursive strategy, his choice of rhetorical devices and his moral stance. Through Marlow’s journey to Africa, the author reluctantly proclaims the demystification of the world, and at the same time attempts to compensate and redeem the African continent by re-mystifying the Congo River. That’s why he both admires Rurtz’s adventurous spirit and condemns the imperialistic crimes that have resulted from the spirit. Therefore, Marlow’s journey should not be simply regarded as bodily movement in space, but as a ritualistic spiritual sublimation.