船如国家:《领航人》中的海洋书写与库珀的革命历史想象

The Ship of State: Seafaring in The Pilot and J. F. Cooper’s Imagination of the Revolution History

《领航人》是以历史传奇形式为新兴的共和国编织的起源神话。服务建构共同历史的意图,小说讲述了不同阶层在国家之船中同仇敌忾的革命叙事。在看似同舟共济的战争历程中,却有难以掩饰的紧张与冲突:小说中最具英雄气质的底层人物只有在面对大海与敌人时才显现出价值,却在作者以出身、道德与智识的评判下,先后被逐出局,被更具绅士色彩的人物替代。放置在19世纪20年代美国政治与社会文化转型的语境中,小说对尊卑差异与等级服从的刻意强调和对低下阶层的刻板描绘,与自由、平等与民主意识日渐深入人心的社会氛围形成了有意反差。可以说,《领航人》既是宣扬民族主义的颂歌,又是对独立革命精神与低下阶层的背叛。

The Pilot is both a historical romance and an origin myth of the newly founded Republic.However,the shared voyage against a despotic Great Britain by people from all walks of life does not mean that the revolutionaries share a democratic Ship of State.Quite on the contrary,the lowly-born heroes,such as John Paul Jones and Tom Coffin,could prove their values only when facing the test of the salt water,but are written off one after the other under the strict criteria of birth and breeding,replaced by their social betters eventually.The emphasis on social deference and distinction and the stereotypical treatment of the lower class is quite a contrast to the democratic and individualistic turn of the American society in the 1820 s.Praising the nationalism on the one hand,The Pilot is a betrayal of the lower class as well as the spirit of the Revolution on the other hand.