模糊的客体 凸显的主体——《霍夫曼博士的邪恶欲望机器》对父权制文化中两性身份的解构

Shadowy Female Images and Ferocious Male Images: Deconstruction of Gender Relationship in The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman

在以父权制为核心的西方文化背景下,男性是欲望的主体,是"自我";女性则被降为男性欲望的客体,是"他者"。安吉拉·卡特在长篇小说《霍夫曼博士的邪恶欲望机器》中,对男性和女性分别扮演的客体和主体的身份进行了解构:作品戏仿传统的作为欲望的对象的女性形象,并有意模糊和将女性角色置于小说的背景以突出其在传统文化中的被客体化的地位;凸显男性形象,使众多的男性形象突出为张狂、喧嚣的欲望的主体,使之与模糊的女性形象成对照。通过戏仿和夸张的手法,卡特有意使文本中女性和男性形象都脱离了真实自然的人的形象,从而颠覆了父权制文化中的两性身份。

In the male-centered Western culture, men are subjects of their own desire ; while women have been reduced to insignificant objects of male desire. Man is ＂self＂, while woman is ＂the other＂. Angela Carter deconstructs this patriarchal notion of gender relationship in her novel The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman. She parodies the traditional fe- male images as sexual objects, blurring and putting those female images to the background of the novel to emphasize their position as objects ; on the other hand, she makes the male images pop out in the context by exaggerating and parodying male images as desire subjects. By the contrast between the shadowy and fragmented female images and the ferocious male images, Carter denaturalizes both the female and male images, and overthrows the traditional gender relationship in her novel.