“异者”与意识形态之墙——评赫曼·麦尔维尔的《抄写员巴特比:一个华尔街的故事》

The Other"and the Wall of Ideology—Herman Melville's"Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street

在《抄写员巴特比 :一个华尔街的故事》中作为美国 19世纪中产阶级代表的老律师对抄写员巴特比这个充满不确定性的人物进行了失败的阐释。他的失败揭示出资本主义宗教观、物质观和理性观的局限性。作品中“墙”的意象代表的是人和人之间交流的阻隔。这种阻隔恰恰是由无形的意识形态的高墙造成的。作品讽刺了资产阶级在对待“异者”

In'Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street', the narrator, an esteemed lawyer in Wall Street, fails to interpret the enigmatic figure of Bartleby who is one of the scriveners working in his office. Since the lawyer is depicted as a representative of the bourgeoisie, his failure to understand the existence of Bartleby indicates the limits of the bourgeois religion, commercialism, and rationalism. The recurrent image of the wall in the short story epitomizes the ideological barrier which thwarts communication and leads to alienation. Bartleby, being the Other in the society, is doomed to die in silence under the high walls of prison which symbolize bourgeois ideology.