旧南方的新主体——凯特·肖邦内战小说的创伤书写

A New Subjet of the Old South:Construction of Trauma in Kate Chopin's Civil War Fiction

肖邦的内战小说通过再现南北战争对南方白人造成的心理创伤和文化创伤,建构了南方作为受害者和牺牲者的新主体形象。在肖邦笔下,种植园和奴隶制的破坏是南北战争对南方白人造成的最大创伤,由此引发社群、家庭、个人情感与身份的危机。肖邦为治疗南北战争创伤开出的药方是重建家园和社群的和谐关系,为受伤者提供疗伤的物理和精神空间。肖邦的内战小说主要关注战争对路易斯安那特定阶层和族群的影响,从而构成其地域美学的一个重要维度,在奴隶制、种族和性别问题上均表现出保守主义倾向。

Kate Chopin's Civil War fiction represents the southern whites'psychological trauma and cultural trauma caused by the war to construct a new subject—American south as victims and sufferers.In Chopin's fiction,the biggest trauma originates from the destruction of southerners'plantations and slavery which result in the crisis of community,family,personal emotion and identity.To restore the harmonious relationships of family and community is Chopin's prescription to heal the traumas,for it can provide physical and spiritual shelter for the sufferers.Exploring the war effects upon her class and ethnicity,Chopin constructs a regional aesthetics,which reflects her conservative inclination in slavery,race and gender.