《巴比特》的社会群体消费文化观

A Vivid Portraiture of American National Cultural Narrative——Consumer Culture Outlook of Social Groups in Babbitt

从消费文化的角度,对中西方学界所忽视的辛克莱·刘易斯小说《巴比特》中社会群体的文化特征及其文化观进行了分析,主要表现为一种"保守实用主义"特征:一是打上了很深的消费主义的烙印:赚取更多的金钱以满足炫耀和享乐主义的生活方式;二是打上了20年代新旧文化激烈冲突的烙印:表现出了一种典型的消费文化中的等级、阶级偏见。此外,刘易斯以一个文学家的敏锐判断力,捕捉到了社会学界在其半个世纪之后才意识到的"文化资本"、"广告的符号意义"等问题,表现出了他在社会文化方面超前的预见性和认知性。

From the perspective of consumer culture,the essay explores the cultural features and outlook of the social groups in Babbitt which have been neglected in academic circle for a long time.The point of view demonstrates the cultural characteristic of pragmatism and conservatism of American social groups.The consumerism and the conflicts between new and old culture in 1920s were deeply engraved on the minds of the social groups so that they had a strong prejudice against social class and classification,and aimed at making more money to meet the life style of flaunt and hedonism.Moreover,the novel seizes sharply the problems of ＂culture capital＂ and ＂the signal meaning of advertisement＂ which weren＇t advanced by academic circle until after half a century,displaying Sinclair Lewis＇s supernormal foresight and cognition in revealing social essence.