反思与回归:薇拉·凯瑟《莎菲拉与女奴》中的逃避主题

Reflection and Return:The Escape Motif in Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather

《莎菲拉与女奴》是薇拉·凯瑟的最后一部小说,也是她第一次将作品的背景设在其出生地——美国南部的弗吉尼亚州。在这部小说中,重要人物身上都体现出形形色色的逃避行为,隐含了薇拉·凯瑟对南方的复杂感情。结合凯瑟研究中的逃避与南方两个主题,研读《莎菲拉与女奴》这部关于逃避、关于南方的作品,来揭露凯瑟作为一个逃避了南方的南方后裔对故土复杂而深沉的感情,揭示出她对旧南方的一种悼念——既缅怀过去的美好时光,又对平静表面下隐藏的罪恶进行深深的反思。与此同时,通过解读文本发现,薇拉·凯瑟正是通过写作《莎菲拉与女奴》从而实现了自己精神上的回归。

Sapphira and the Slave Girl is Willa Cather’s last novel. For the first time, she set the background of her work in Virginia, the southern state of the United States. In this novel, escape is prevailing among major characters, in which embedded the complex feeling that Cather holds towards the South. Combining the two themes of escape and the South in Cather’s study, this paper studies the novel to expose Cather’s complex and deep feelings for her native land as a Southern descendant who escaped from the South, and to reveal her mourning for the old South—remembering the good old days and reflecting on the hidden evil beneath the surface. Meanwhile, through reading the text, Willa Cather realizes her spiritual return by writing Sapphira and the Slave Girl .