书写自我的生存空间:约翰·麦加恩的《在女人中》

Mapping the Self in John Mc Gahern's Amongst Women

作为联系爱尔兰文艺复兴与当代爱尔兰小说创作之间的重要纽带,约翰·麦加恩在20世纪后半期的爱尔兰文学史上占有独特地位。本文拟以麦加恩后期重要作品《在女人中》为例,探讨麦加恩作品与文艺复兴核心文化遗产之间的对话和承继关系。该小说至少在三个方面与文艺复兴时期的文化主题形成对话:对男子气概神话的推崇,对西部乡村空间的文化想象和以圣母形象为代表的对女性的宗教控制。麦加恩揭穿了文艺复兴作家关于爱尔兰西部农村的田园乌托邦神话,展示了巨变将要到来之前的真实乡村图景,不仅书写了父亲的死亡和新一代摆脱精神创伤的成长过程,还预示了变化与开放的可能性。

John McGahern occupies a unique position in Irish literary history as a major link between the Literary Revival and the ongoing literary landscape. This article seeks to read his major novel Amongst Women as a case study of his dialogues with the Revivalists within the context of Revival legacies. The novel touches upon at least three motifs once prominent in the Literary Revival： the cult of masculine violence, the imagi- nation of the Irish West as a rural utopia and the glorification of the Virgin Mother to legitimatize the patriarchal gender hierarchy. McGahern exposes the Revivalist myths of the rural utopia by depicting realistically what rural life is like when Ireland stands on the threshold of a dawning new era. He not only records the death of the father and the growth of the younger generation out of the traumatic past, but also indicates the possibilities of change and opening-up.