“生存还是毁灭”:《动物园的故事》和《晚安,妈妈》的互文性研究

“To Be or Not to Be”: Intertextuality in Edward Albee's The Zoo Story and Marsha Norman's 'night Mother

文章从互文性的角度研究美国剧作家爱德华·阿尔比和玛莎·诺曼的作品《动物园的故事》和《晚安,妈妈》。两位主人公来自不同阶层,拥有各自的经历,但因自身疾病而被他人隔离,在极度缺乏沟通的生活中,他们努力过与他人获得沟通和联系。在共同的生存困惑面前,他们最后均选择了自杀。两部作品表达了戏剧家对现代人的普遍生存困惑问题的重视,通过作品中主人公的自杀情节唤醒过着麻木生活的人。反观当今现代人的生存现状,两部作品对思考现代人的生存方式和实现生命价值都具有现实意义。

This paper is to explore the intertextuality in Edward Albee＇ s The Zoo Story and Marsha Norman＇ s ＇night Mother with close time and similar theme. It has found that the two protagonists from different social classes and owning separate experiences, but they are faced with the same existential predicaments and ending up with suicide. The two protagonists are both segregated from others by their illness and living a desperate state lacking of interpersonal communication, but they do try to make contacts and communications with others. The two plays express playwrights＇ emphasis on the common existential predicaments of modern people and aims to evoke those living numb life. Reflecting the existential state of modern people, the two plays have realistic significance on thinking existential means and actualization of life value.