“飘”向旧体制还是“飘”向新文明——解读美国小说《飘》

“Floating” to the Old System or “Floating” to the New Civilization:On the American Novel Gone with the Wind

小说《飘》由于书名和书中大量篇幅关于南方种植园主阶级对往昔生活的眷恋追忆和对北军解放黑奴的仇恨描写,曾引起评论界广泛争议,认为小说是在维护旧的奴隶制度,否定资本主义新文明。通过对历史发展的必然性和规律性及书中主人公在历史潮流推动下从行动的不自觉向思想的自觉的转变过程,揭示《飘》的思想主题并非历史的反动,而是在蓄奴制烟雾笼罩下升起的实力前进的灯火。

In Gone with the Wind, it describes the struggle of the plantation owners of the American South fighting to keep their slaves against the American industrial North fighting to free them. Many critics believed Mitchell＇s novel defended slave labor in the agricultural South and rejected the capitalism of the industrial North. However, an analysis of the historical trends of the period demonstrates that the outcome of the war in favor of the industrial North was, in fact, inevitable. Contrary to the view that the novel opposed the social forces of histori- cal development, Mitchell＇s Searlett O＇Hara is the story of one individual who perhaps awakens from a deep sleep and must necessarily change to take a stand, and make cold, hard choices in order to embrace survival in a land at war with itself in spite of the shadow of slavery.