灵魂·性·屎溺——论诺曼·梅勒《古代的夜晚》中的超验色彩

Spirit·Sex·Excrement——On the Transcendental Hue in Norman Mailer's Ancient Evenings

美国作家诺曼·梅勒的小说《古代的夜晚》以古埃及的故事和神话为背景,回溯了自然和人的本质,在一个具有浓郁超验色彩的虚幻世界里赋予灵魂、性和屎溺以重要的意义。首先,小说中人物的灵魂超脱肉体获得独立话语权,成为叙事主体,昭示了精神的重要地位。其次,神人界限的模糊化描写解构了神的神圣身份,从而将人性升华到至高无上的地位,凸显了人对于创造宇宙、主导自然的重要性。最后,小说在字里行间流露出对资本主义物质文明的尖锐批评和对当代社会人之存在的深切关怀。梅勒借灵魂之道、性之道和屎溺之道呈现了他带有超验色彩的人文思考。

Norman Mailer’s Ancient Evenings draws on the grandiose background of Egyptian mythology and traces back to the essence of nature and human beings.Spirit,sex and excrement embody significant meanings in a fancy world of Transcendentalism.Firstly,the hero in Ancients Evenings gains its rebirth from the dead body and retrieves its independent voice.The spirit of the hero becomes the narrative subject,which reveals its dominant status in universe.Secondly,the novel obscures the boundary between gods and human beings,thus deconstructs the gods’divine identity,which makes humanity holy and supreme.The importance of humanity in creating the universe and dominating the nature is made prominent.Finally,Mailer levels his acute criticism at the material civilization of modern society reflected in this novel.Overall,Ancient Evenings is endowed with rich color of Transcendentalism.This paper intends to analyze the transcendental hue based on the descriptions of spirit,sex and excrement in the novel,and in turn,to illustrate Norman Mailer’s humanistic care and concern with the existence of human beings in contemporary society.