“自性”:苏珊·桑塔格“反自传性”小说的自传性写作——《恩主》中“冲破教堂屋顶之梦”的诺斯替教符号研究

＂On Self＂： Susan Sontag＇s Autobiographical Writing in Her Anti-Autobiographical Fiction A Religious Semiotic Study on ＂The Dream of Piercing the Roof of a Cathedral＂ in The Benefactor

苏珊·桑塔格宣称其在开山之作《恩主》的写作中“力避自传性”，评论者也几乎都相信这是一部“反自传性”的虚构类小说。在桑塔格的日记《重生》中可以发现，《恩主》原来的标题为《希波赖特之梦》。“梦”作为母题在桑塔格的写作中被反复变形运用，既成为其文学创作的重要特色之一，也折射出作家对其自我意识的坚持拷问。“冲破教堂之梦”是小说中主人公所做的第三个梦，其中隐藏大量的宗教符号，这与作家声称自己是“无神论者”相左。本文因循胡瑟尔将“梦”划在“象征”类型之下的研究路线，借助符号学的阐释方法，解码桑塔格在《恩主》中构建的“梦”艺术符号背后隐蔽的自我意识，旨在揭示象征系统之下的意识形态，以期在更为深入的层面上探讨桑塔格文学创作的思想性，以及作家的自我与写作之间的关系。可以看到，《恩主》表面上“反自传性”地建构希波赖特之梦的符号，实际上却是艺术地再现作家的自性一一处于流散中的犹太性以及改宗下的宗教感。这种矫揉造作的写作策略实质就是日后令桑塔格扬名的“坎普”观，而在同化与现代性的双重压力之下，作为犹太裔作家，桑塔格走上一条折中主义的启蒙路线--犹太教“灵知神话”成为她自我意识的“恩主”。

Susan Sontag declares she spares no effort in avoiding autobiographical writing in her maiden novel The Benefactor, and most reviewers also consider it an anti-autobiographical fiction. In Sontag＇s early diaries Reborn, the title for The Benefactor is originally ＂Dreams of Hippolyte＂. As a motif, distortion of dreams is frequently applied in her writing, which becomes not only one of her most significant literary characteristics, but also a gesture toward the writer＇s insistent introspection on self-consciousness. ＂The dream of piercing the roof of a Cathedral＂ is the third dream of the novel＇s hero, which contains a large number of veiled religious symbols, despite the writer＇s self-declared atheism. Following Marie Husser＇s research method of regarding dreams as symbolic of archetype, and taking advantage of Semiotic methodology of text interpretation, this article decodes the writer＇s concealed self-consciousness under her constructed artistic symbols in The Benefactor, with the aim to give an in-depth discussion on both Sontag＇s ideology of her literary creation and the relationship between her self and writing. This article also attempts to reveal that, although, superficially, The Benefactor constructs the dreams of Hippolyte as anti-autobiographical, it effectively represents the writer＇s self-- the interplay of her Jewish heritage with the condition of diaspora and her religious sense after conversion. This deceptive writing strategy is her later well-known ＂camp＂ concept in nature. AS Jewish descendant, Sontag heads toward electicism of Enlightenment under the dual pressures of assimilation and modernization, and thus Judaism Gnostic mythology becomes ＂the benefactor＂ of her self-consciousness.