摘要
E.L.多克托罗的小说《比利·巴思格特》以第一人称回忆视角,讲述了少年比利在美国大萧条期间加入黑帮打拼的一段往事。小说中,比利在不同的身份间自由切换,且在他者的影响下不断重塑自我,这反映了后现代身份不仅缺乏连续的同一主体,而且依赖于语言的建构。比利以父辈为模板,试图将自己塑造成美国梦故事的主人公,然而叙事的自省性和内在矛盾曝露了他的刻意洗白,让整个身份建构呈现造假之嫌疑。这建构/解构过程不仅揭示了美国梦荣光背后隐藏的罪恶与黑暗,也暗示着个体和民族身份认同的虚构属性。
Billy Bathgate, a novel by E. L. Doctorow, tells in first-person retrospective perspective a personal history of young Billy with gangsters in American Depression Era. In the novel, Billy’s free shift among various identities and his reshaping of the self under the influence of the other reflect the lack of a continuous and unitary subject of postmodern identity. Modelling on the surrogate fathers, Billy attempts to construct himself as a hero in the story of the American Dream, but the reflexivity and inner conflicts of his narrative reveal his intentional whitewashing of his past, making his identity construction faulty. This process of construction/deconstruction exposes the evils and darkness behind the glamourous American Dream, suggesting the fictive nature of both individual and national identity.
作者
汤瑶
郭棲庆
Tang Yao;Guo Qiqing(English Department,Shanghai University of Engineering Science,Shanghai,China;School of English and International Studies,Beijing Foreign Studies University,Beijing,China)
出处
《外国文学》
CSSCI
北大核心
2020年第4期73-82,共10页
Foreign Literature
