《为奴十二载》的伦理表达与生活书写

The Ethical Expression and Description of Livelihood in Twelve Years a Slave

自传体小说《为奴十二载》以主人公所罗门·诺瑟普屈身为奴的十二年经历为主线,使用倒叙和插叙的手法,成功再现美国南北战争前期惨无人道的奴隶生存状态,真实记录主人公为"回家"而隐忍十二年的心路历程,揭露奴隶制下的残酷人性。以文学伦理学批评为研究视角,沿着"回家"这条伦理主线,通过还原"被卖为奴"发生的"伦理现场",逐一解构小说中的"伦理身份"、"伦理选择"、"伦理意识"等"伦理结"。在伦理意识的驱动下,所罗门选择通过以文字这一独特的文学样式来叙述自己的生活经验,代表整个黑人民族进行伦理控诉,揭露了万恶的奴隶制和暴力等级秩序,奏响了献给黑人种族的赞歌,并表达了反对奴隶制度的伦理诉求,最终推动了废奴运动的进程。

Taking the long- standing affliction of being a slave for twelve years,the bibliographical novel Twelve Years a Slaveutilizes the approaches of flash- back and interposed narration to represent the brutal and inhuman living conditions of the slaves before American Civil War and record the twelve years＇ arduous mental journey of Solomon Northup＇s struggling for ＂going home＂,revealing the cruel human nature of that era. This paper intends to analyze the ethical line of ＂going home＂from the perspective of ethical literary criticism. Given the ethical scene of ＂being sold as a slave＂,the paper attempts to decode a sequence of ＂ethical complexes＂,for instances,the ＂ethical identity＂,＂ethical choice＂and ＂ethical consciousness＂,so as to uncover the slaves＇ ethical appeals.Driven by ethical consciousness,Solomon chooses to narrate his life experience via the unique literary pattern of livelihood description,so as to unveil the relentless slavery and vicious hierarchical orders to the masses. On behalf of the entire black race,he initiates the ethical indictment as a herald,chants the hymns for the blacks,vents the anti- slavery ethical appeal and provides impetus to the advancement of abolition movement.