《迷失的男孩》:空间视域下“神的事工”的创伤叙事

Lost Boy:A Spatial Perspective on the Traumatic Narrative of“God’s Work”

《迷失的男孩》讲述了作者布伦特·杰夫斯及其哥哥克莱恩、布兰登和达夫等人在美国摩门教原教旨主义教会管控下的多舛命运。权力不仅充斥于以沃伦·杰夫斯为首的教会空间和社区空间,而且还渗透到信徒的家庭空间,实现对其管理和惩戒。孩子们在一夫多妻制的父权家庭中,缺失父母之爱而成为弃儿;在摩门教基要派社区和非摩门教社区里被疏离和边缘化,失去人生目标而成为“他者”;在虚妄伪善的教会的规训下,对宗教信仰深感迷茫。小说揭示了教会以“神的事工”的名义对孩子们进行权力操控,造成其身心创伤,包括家庭创伤、社会创伤和宗教创伤,使其在生存空间中举步维艰。

Brent Jeffs’s memoir,Lost Boy,narrates how he and his brothers,Crane and Dave,used to suffer under the control of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints(FLDS).In his narrative,space is where power politics operates.Power not only permeates the church and community spaces headed by Warren Jeffs,but also penetrates into the believers’family space,controlling and punishing them.The children become outcasts in polygamous patriarchal families where parental love is absent.They are marginalized and alienated by the FLDS and non-Mormon communities,losing their goal of life and becoming“the other.”Subjugated by the discipline of a hypocritical church,they become confused about their religious belief.This article argues that by wielding power,the church,in the name of“God’s work”,traumatizes children physically and mentally,resulting in family trauma,social trauma,and religious trauma.