薇拉·凯瑟《教授之屋》的空间形式和城市欲望书写

The Spatial Form and Urban Desire Writing in Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House

《教授之屋》是薇拉·凯瑟的中期代表作品,是她突破写作题材和写作技巧并对小说空间形式进行探索的一次成功的尝试。空间并置、淡化故事时间以及打破线性叙事逻辑等叙事手法在作品中发挥了重要的功能。凯瑟将圣彼得教授置于旧屋、新宅和蓝岩山等不同生存空间,展现了物欲横流的社会里人物追寻欲望的行为和由此产生的身份焦虑与茫然。与此同时,凯瑟直面社会矛盾和变革,试图克服物质和精神的分裂,撕去其"逃避主义者"的身份标签,并令作品富含现代性意义。

The Professor’s House is Willa Cather’s representative work in the middle period of her creating,which is a successful attempt for her to explore the spatial form of the novel by breaking through writing subject and skills.In her works,Cather adopted narrative skills like spatial juxtaposition,deemphasizing the timeline of the story and breaking linear narrative logic.Cather places Professor St.Peter in different living spaces,such as old house,new house and Blue Mesa,which shows the characters’pursuit of desire and the resulting anxiety and confusion of identity in the materialistic society.Confronting with social contradictions and changes,Cather tried to overcome the material and spiritual divisions,which breaks her identity of the so-called“escapist”and makes her works rich in modernity.