传统与现代的博弈:福克纳南方庄园小说中的长子继承制研究

The Rivalries Between Tradition and Modernity: Primogeniture Studies in Faulkner′s Southern Plantation Novels

历史上美国南方庄园采用长子继承制,这一传统在福克纳南方庄园小说中得以再现。《押沙龙,押沙龙!》《喧哗与骚动》和《去吧,摩西》这三部南方庄园小说都涉及长子继承制,由此引发子嗣之间的矛盾冲突,凸现出转型时期的南方社会变迁。表象上对长子继承权的争夺,实则是传统与现代的博弈,它具体表现在三个方面:盲目崇拜与主体性觉醒的博弈,保守怀旧与世俗功利的博弈,价值理性与工具理性的博弈。其中有混血儿为追求自由平等的人格向白人兄弟发起的挑战,还有白人子嗣之间优胜劣汰的竞争。正是这些矛盾冲突加速了南方庄园的衰败。最终传统的长子继承制被现代社会理念所取代。

Primogeniture, widely adopted in Southern American plantations, has been represented in Faulkner’s three Southern plantation novels: Absalom, Absalom!, The Sound and the Fury and Go Down, Moses. The conflicts between the male offspring highlight the social changes of Southern society in a transitional period. Seemingly, they are fighting for Primogeniture, which actually reveals the rivalries between tradition and modernity. More specifically, the rivalries between idolatry and awakening of subjectivity, between nostalgic conservatism and secular utilitarianism, between value reason and instrumental reason. Those conflicts involve the son of mixed blood who challenges his white counterpart to pursue free and equal personality, and the fierce competition for the fittest between white siblings. It is those conflicts that accelerate the decline and destruction of the Southern plantations. Eventually, traditional Primogeniture has been replaced by modern social ideas.