“分隔的国度”与“连接的城市”——厄普代克与惠特曼城市诗学对话

“Separate Nation”vs.“City of Connection”:An Urban Poetics Dialogism between Updike and Whitman

约翰·厄普代克的城市诗集《美国风物及其它》中的代表作《纽约》运用核心意象“分隔的国度”,表现了现代纽约隔绝的人际关系和文化特征,而瓦尔特·惠特曼的纽约诗则赋予纽约以完美性——“连接的城市”。两位诗人在书写“美国经历”方面具有宏观上的诗学传承关系。微观上对比剖析两人的纽约诗,厄普代克用电视、摩天大楼和地铁三种典型纽约城市地景潜对话了惠特曼的桅杆、钢铁建筑和季节变换三种独特而完美的纽约城市地景,对话相反相成,同类景观表达出不同的人际关系特征和城市文化内涵。“分隔”与“连接”的差异,源于时代、人生经历和诗学主张的不同。

The sonnet New York City is one of the representatives in John Updike’s unique urban poem collection Americana and Other Poems.This poem depicts modern NYC as a“separate nation”which presents the alienated human relations and the problem of city culture.Contrastively,Whitman presented the perfection of NYC“city of connection”in his two renowned NYC poems.From a macro perspective,Updike generally inherited Whitman’s poetic proposition on writing American experience,which is the basis of the urban poetics dialogism between the two poets.From a micro perspective,the television,skyscraper and subway,three typical landmarks potentially dialogued with Whiteman’s mast,ironed building and shift of seasons three distinctive and perfect landscapes of New York City.Updike communicated with Whitman by presenting similar city landscapes but different city human relations and cultural connotations.The contrastive presentation of NYC originates from their different personal attachment with the city and the era,and most importantly,their different literary view.