达菲的《世界之妻》:颠覆男性话语塑形的女性想象共同体

An Imagined Female Community to Subvert the Patriarchal Discursive Characterization in Duffy's The World's Wife

作为西方文学的源头,古希腊罗马神话经典作品所塑造的女性形象要么是海伦那样的红颜祸水,要么就是像潘多拉那样的替罪工具,要么是美杜莎那样的妖魔,要么是赫拉那样的妒妇。她们都是男性话语中被言说的客体,按照男人的利益、审美价值观和规训需要来塑形。当代英国桂冠诗人卡罗尔·安·达菲却在《世界之妻》诗集中以第一人称的主体叙事方式,让神话中英雄的妻子们高调出场,各自言说自己的追求、情欲和思想,以"我们说"形成了众女喧哗的局面,组成了一个女性想象共同体,合力颠覆男性话语权力下的女性塑形,建构女性话语主体地位和女性文学传统。

As the source of the Western literature,the ancient Greek and Roman and mythology maliciously depicts female characters either as Helen,a dangerous beauty or Pandora,a scapegoat,or Medusa,a monster and Hera,a jealous wife,who are shaped in accordance with man’s interests,norms and aesthetical values.Carol Ann Duffy,however,rewrites these mythic stories in her collection The World’s Wife by means of first-person narrators to let the female characters walk out of the male shadow of power,speaking for themselves,letting out their desires,feelings and thoughts.They build up an imagined female community to subvert the stereotypes of the female figures depicted by the patriarchal discursive power.Duffy tries to make female subjectivity in literary discourse and set up the female literary tradition.