莱辛作品的社会空间叙事——以《野草在歌唱》和《玛莎·奎斯特》为例

An Analysis of the Social Space in Lessing’s works——Based on The Grass is Singing and Martha Quest

多丽丝·莱辛被认为是英国文学史上最杰出的作家之一,是继弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙之后最伟大的作家。《野草在歌唱》和《玛莎·奎斯特》是莱辛早期的两部非洲题材的小说。两部小说有着相同的社会空间,通过主人公所体验的不同的社会空间,揭露出罪恶的殖民统治和种族制度不仅是造成非洲南部当地人苦难生活的根源,还是扭曲和扼杀了同样生活在这片土地上的白人人性灵魂的祸首。文章以亨利·列斐伏尔的社会空间理论为参考,以在殖民地生活的不同国家和不同种族的人物之间的关系为线索,分析这两部作品中的社会空间,从而为人们提供了观察世界和理解人生的别样视角,使读者可以通过有限的叙事文本去捕捉空间背后的精神内涵。

Doris Lessing was considered to be one of the most brilliant writers in English Literature and the greatest writer after Virginia Wolf.The Grass is Singing and Martha Quest were two of her early African novels.Through heroines'experiences of different social spaces in the same physical space,the author tried to reveal that the evil colonial rule is not only responsible for the miserable life of the natives,but also for the distortion and strangulation of the whites'souls.Taking the"social space theory of Henri Lefebvre"as reference and the social relationships between the people of different countries and different races living in the colony as clue,this paper intends to interpret the social space in The Grass is Singing and Martha Quest,which provides a different perspective for people to observe the world and understand meaning of life.And the reader could capture the spiritual connotation behind the space elements through the limited narrative text.