道德危机与政治危机——重读哈罗德·品特的《回家》与英国20世纪60年代

Moral Crisis and Political Crisis:Re-reading Harold Pinter’s Homecoming and the 1960s Britain

品特的早期作品历来被定义为"非政治"甚至"非道德"的荒诞派戏剧。本文提出,"战后"英国社会对家庭伦理与道德问题的大讨论是理解这些现实主义剧作的重要线索。通过对同性恋、卖淫等社会敏感问题进行艺术编码,《回家》(1965)戏剧性地呈现集体男性气质危机,以此隐喻"战后"英国社会的道德危机,以及变革乏力、软弱无能的保守政府所遭遇的政治危机。与"愤怒的青年"不同,青年品特从未走向政治幻灭抑或政治反动,而是努力借戏剧艺术介入现实,传达积极的社会和政治批评,表现出显著的新左派文艺思想。50年代末涌现的新左派文人明确反对反动的、远离政治的"愤怒写作",强调文学对社会现实的严肃"介入"。《回家》中隐晦的现实主义戏剧政治是品特80年代高调露骨的政治戏剧的先声。

Pinter’s early plays have long been defined as absurdist work that is apolitical and even amoral.This essay argues that the vehement debate of post-war British society on family ethics and morality provides an important clue to these dramas of realism.By encoding such sensitive social issues as homosexuality and prostitution, Homecoming(1965) dramatically stages a collective masculinity crisis, which metaphorizes the moral and political crisis of an impotent, conservative British government.Unlike the "Angry Young Men," young Pinter never got disillusioned or politically reactionary, but committed himself to social and political critique.This attitude manifested the dramatist’s influence by the New Left who opposed the apolitical, reactionary "angry writing," emphasizing instead the social commitment of arts and literature.Thus the subtly realist theatrical politics in Homecoming became a precursor of Pinter’s explicitly political plays in the 1980s.