《掘墓人的女儿》中的哥特现实主义分析

The Gravedigger's Daughter: A Gothic Realism Analysis

《掘墓人的女儿》是乔伊斯·卡罗尔·欧茨关于犹太人雅各布一家在经历大屠杀后逃亡的过程中身份探寻的一部备受读者欢迎的小说。小说的主人公是丽贝卡,掘墓人雅各布的女儿。欧茨是美国女性作家中最善于用暴力因素创作的,暴力描写原属于哥特主义的特点,在欧茨笔下的暴力却不仅仅体现血腥、黑暗,欧茨试图通过暴力描写给读者展现一种历史现实,巧妙地将哥特主义的写作方式与现实主义的写作方式融合在一起来帮助她表达她所想展现给读者的宗旨。整篇小说以哥特现实主义的写作特色来带领读者探寻犹太人的身份抉择,将哥特主义与现实主义有效融合,既体现血腥暴力,又让人反思犹太人在经历大屠杀以后的生活困境及身份抉择过程,更有效地呈现给读者当时犹太人在美国的困境。

The Gravedigger＇ s Daughter is a popular novel of Joyce Carol Oates that tells about the Jewish fami- ly＇ s identity searching in their surviving process after the Holocaust. The main character is Rebecca, the gravedig- ger＇ s daughter. Oates is a writer who is good at using violent factors among American female writers. Violence used to he divided into the Gothic part. But in Oates＇ works, violence does not only represent for blood, darkness, vio- lence is used to provide the readers with a feeling of historical fact. Oates combines the characteristic of Gothic with the characteristic of realism to help present the essence of her book. The whole novel is written in the way of Gothic realism in order to lead readers to search for the Jewish identity. It combines the Gothicism and the Realism to re- present the blood and violence, also, we can reflect on the Jewish living dilemma and identity choosing process. Such Gothic realism way of writing gives the readers a better way of understanding the Jewish condition in America.