前人的肩膀:种族性和生态批评简介(选译)

The Shoulders We Stand On:An Introduction to Ethnicity and Ecocriticism(Selected Translation)

本文是乔尼·亚当森(Joni Adamson)和司各特·斯洛维克(Scott Slovic)于2009年夏以期刊MELUS审稿专家身份做的学科简介。亚当森重视美国当代文学生态正义问题研究,强调族裔文学是生态文学研究的重要分支。作为最早从生态批评角度研究族裔文学的学者,亚当森是将生态正义思想运用到生态文学批评实践的‘第一人’,被誉为生态批评‘第二波’的领军人物;其专著《中间地带:美国印第安文学、生态正义与生态批评》(2001)为生态族裔文学研究的开山之作。亚当森和斯洛维克以卡特里娜飓风事件切入,对早期的环境运动进行溯源,说明社会正义和环境正义密不可分,指出生态正义思想是统观种族、阶层、性别等问题的有效标准;未来研究者不应局促于生态不公问题,亦应聚焦多元文化背景,为生态平衡谋求出路。

The Shoulders We Stand On:An Introduction to Ethnicity and Ecocriticismwas written by JoniAdamson and Scott Slovic,who are guest editors of the journal,MELUS.:Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States.In the introduction to this special issue,Adamson highlights the role environmental justice has played in the study of environmentally-oriented ethnic literatures of the United States.She points out that ethnic literature is very often linked to environmental literature.As the first literary scholar to apply the concepts of environmental justice to ecocriticism,Adamson can be regarded as a pioneer who analyzes ethnic literary texts from the perspective of linked social and environmental issues.Her book American Indian literature,environmental justice,and ecocriticism:the middle place(2001)also laid the foundation for the study of environmental ethnic literature and environmental justice.With reference to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans,Adamson and Sloviclook back to the origins of the early environmental movement in the US,then explain how social justice and environmental issues are linked.The concepts of environmental justice theorize why issues surrounding race,class,gender also play a role in issues surrounding environmental disasters and degradation.Adamson and Slovic survey the titles of US literature that best illustrates the theories of environmental justice,then cast their vision to literatures outside the US that is also illustrating the connections between social and environmental issues.They emphasize the positive meanings of environmental justice within multicultural communities,and explicate how this approach to literary analysis might encourage both academics and readers to think about ecological balance for both society and the planet.