救赎与欲望——《蜥蜴的夜晚》中的异质空间探析

The Heterogeneous Space in The Night of the Iguana

从空间批评的视角出发,分析了田纳西·威廉斯(Tennessee Williams)的《蜥蜴的夜晚》(The Night of the Iguana)中呈现的异质空间,及其和人物的互为建构关系。正是这种有别于现代西方社会常规空间的异质空间的存在,为主人公逃脱主流社会桎梏、寻求救赎提供了可能,使作品中表现的在生存和毁灭、光亮与阴影的较量中,生的信念、光的力量占据了上风。但是,作为西方主流规训性社会空间的他者,这种异质空间也具有双重性,既因其开放、生机勃勃而被赋予包容、繁衍、重生和救赎功能,具有批判性和颠覆性,又被蒙上了神秘、肉欲的原始色彩,因此揭示了作者本人既边缘又中心的双重身份、视野和灵肉冲突的双重人格。

The Night of the Iguana, put on in 1961, is one of Tennessee Williams＇s most celebrated plays, which has yet been largely ignored by critics in China. Adopting the perspective of spatial criticism, the paper analyzes the heterogeneous space in the play and how such a space interacts with characters in it. It is right such a kind of space deviating from disci- plinary space in modern society that affords possibility for the protagonist＇s seeking refuge and salvation. It enables the be-lief in life and the power of light to gain the upper hand in the battle between survival and destruction, light and shadow. But the heterogeneous space as ＂the other＂ has its duality： it is endowed with the all-embracing, generating and revitali- zing capacity for its primeval vitality, while on the other hand it is identified with mystery and lust. Such duality reveals the author＇s both marginalized and central positions in his society and the resulting double visions as well as his conflicting per- sonalities split between spiritual aspiration and sexual pursuit.