创伤与阴影:9·11与美国诗歌

9·11给美国社会带来巨大创伤,文学成为表述创伤的一个重要手段。作为一种文学形式,诗歌在描述创伤、留下记忆、反思创伤带来的阴影方面发挥了不可替代的作用,由此也构成了进入新世纪以来美国文学的一个重要篇章。纵观9·11诗歌创作可以发现,不仅数量众多,而且形式各一,既有沿袭固有的传统的诗作,也有在诗歌写作上独辟蹊径、另拓新路的尝试,但更重要的是,很多诗作在描述9·11这个可怕事件的同时也对其原因和结果进行了深刻剖析,显示了诗人无畏的批判精神。

9·11 has caused enormous trauma in American society. Literature then became an important means to express the effects of trauma. As a literary form, poetry has played a critical role in describing trauma, deepening memory and reflecting upon the traumatic shadow, and because of which, the poems about 9 · 11 have set up an remarkable chapter in American literature since the beginning of the new century. A general survey of the poems about 9·11 indicates that not only the number of poems written about the event is surprisingly great but also the forms of the poems are various; some inherit the tradition of American poetry while others find new ways of poetry writing, but what is more important is that, beside focusing on the description of the horrible event, many poems also take on a critical attitude toward its causes and consequences by self-reflecting with depth.