荒野中别样的哥特之花——《最后的莫希干人》哥特特色浅析

A Different Flower of Gothic in American Wilderness:Brief Analysis of Gothic Features in The Last of the Mohicans

詹姆斯·菲里莫·库珀的代表作《最后的莫希干人》通常被认为是一部边疆罗曼史或革命历史小说,然而小说中充满了哥特色彩。分析表明,书中的洞穴和墓地是美国版本的哥特背景,而印第安人带给读者的恐惧等同于哥特小说中的恶魔和鬼魂带来的恐惧。处于陌生环境中的白人内心的不确定和不安全投射在外在的环境中,产生了深刻的恐惧效果。库珀将哥特元素与美国的经历和荒野结合起来,实现了对哥特的美国式书写,这种别样的哥特小说对库珀本人的创作和美国文学都有重要的意义。

James Fenimore Cooper＇s masterpiece The Last of the Mohicans is generally believed to be a frontier romance or historical legend. However,the novel is abundant in gothic traces and can be read as a gothic novel to some extent. This paper tries to reveal its gothic features from the analyses of several characters and important settings and finds that the caves and graveyards are Americanized gothic settings and the horror brought by Indians is no less than the horror brought by demons and ghosts in traditional gothic novels. The insecurity and uncertainties White characters felt in a strange environment are projected into the setting to create deep horror. Cooper has integrated the gothic elements with American experience and wilderness to realize his domestication of the Gothic. The different gothic writing has great significance on Cooper＇s writing career and American literature.