《野草在歌唱》中的房子与自我

House and Self in The Grass Is Singing

多丽丝·莱辛始终关注人类个体的生存境遇,与之相应的是她对个人空间的探索。个人空间指居住个体在其间可以摆脱社会分类和身份建构的限定,发现自我,回归自我的空间。莱辛作品多以房子作为最有可能成为个人空间的场所。《野草在歌唱》一书中,房子表现出极强的束缚性和明显的对社会空间的从属性。殖民地白人对身份的固守让房子成为身份的象征符号,成为构建和强化身份的场所,恶化了个体自我的扭曲状态,体现出明显的束缚性。另一方面,规训的社会空间以其无所不在的监视和同质化的生产性使个体自动捍卫它,失去了建立个人空间的意识和能动性,使房子从属于它,成为它的延续。然而,房子依然一度表现出个人空间的特征,其间也曾出现过由个人关系构建的个人空间,为个体自我的复苏创造了机遇。但由于缺乏个体的自觉意识和积极努力,这两种个人空间都是短暂的、脆弱的。在此作品中,莱辛通过对房子作为个人空间的探讨表达了对扭曲、分裂自我的社会空间的批判,也暗示了面对强大的社会空间时构建个人空间的艰难。

The prominent presence of the house and selt m Dons besslngs WORKS lmplae~ her exploration into the possibility of the house to evolve into a real personal space, a space of self-discovery where the dwellers can be outside of and free from the determinations of social categories and identity constructions. In The Grass Is Singing, the house is characterized by its confining quality due to the white settlers＇ insistence on their superior identity, and its subordination to disciplinary social space because of the omnipresent surveillance and homogenizing inclination of the latter, which paralyzes the individual＇s awareness of and initiative in establishing personal space. Against all these, the house temporarily demonstrates the features of personal space and the personal space structured by personal relationship does appear, however fragile. Through the exploration of the house as a potential personal space, Lessing expresses her criticism of the monolithic social space with its distorting and repressing impact on the individual＇s self. The difficulty of establishing the personal space testifies the power of social space.