重拾交往记忆,走出自我迷失——论托妮·莫里森笔下的布莱德

Seeking Identity via Communicative Memory: On the Characterization of Bride in Morrison's God Help the Child

美国当代黑人女作家托妮·莫里森的小说《上帝帮助孩子》将故事背景置于当代美国社会,聚焦儿童的日常生活,彰显了流行文化和消费主义对个体心理与人格的负面影响。主人公布莱德是个黑人女孩,虽然成年后得益于以黑为美的流行文化而获得了很多荣耀,但是童年做伪证陷害自己老师的经历仍然深深地困扰着她。正是借助记忆与时空的关联性,曾经迷失过自我的布莱德正视了过去,并最终走出了过去的阴影。在当下时代,小说关于流行文化与自我迷失、消费主义与人格异化以及交往记忆与返璞归真的书写,无疑具有启迪意义。

Toni Morrison’s latest novel God Help the Child,set in the contemporary society of the U.S.A.with a focused portrayal of children’s daily life,probes into the issue of individual psychology and personality shaped by consumerism and pop culture.The protagonist Bride is a black girl,who later in her adulthood takes advantage of her dark skin and gains numerous honors in the fashion of“Black-is-Beauty”,but she is haunted by her immoral past experience as a dishonest witness against her own teacher.It is the relevance between memory and space/time,and the“communicative memory”that help Bride reconsider earnestly her past and finally steps out of her childhood shadow.Undoubtedly,readers of today may learn a lot in the novel from its exploration of pop culture and identity crisis,consumerism and alienation,together with the“communicative memory”and returning to the pure nature.