生态女性主义视阈下的他者书写——解读《我母亲的自传》

“Other”Writing in The Autobiography of My Mother from Perspective of Ecofeminism

生态女性主义批评始于1974年,由法国女性主义学者弗朗西斯娃·德·奥博妮提出。她认为男性对女性的压迫和人类对自然的掠夺如出一辙,并将二者结合起来研究,揭示出女性与自然之间某种天然的联系,即同为他者,在社会或自然生态中处于劣势地位。生态女性主义从性别的角度切入生态问题,指出男性对女性、人对自然的统治都植根于以家长制为逻辑的认识论之上,进而进行深入的批判。《我母亲的自传》是加勒比作家牙买加·金凯德的代表作,文本采用第一人称叙事,以女主人公雪拉的口吻讲述了自己凄惨而又传奇的一生,还借雪拉之口陈述了继母、莉莎和莫伊拉三位女性的悲惨命运,从中可以看出无论是黑人女性还是白人女性,在父权压迫下,都将失去自我而沦为男性的牺牲品。不仅如此,作者还以优雅而富有乐感的笔触叙述了一段不堪回首的殖民历史,描绘出多米尼克独特的地貌特征和长期的殖民掠夺带来的环境破坏,揭示了作者对后殖民语境下女性命运的思考和对自然生态的人文关怀。

Ecofeminism,initially put forward by the French feminist Francoise d'Eaubonne in 1974,stresses the interconnection between the situations of nature and women.In other words,men's oppression of women parallels human plunder of nature,both of whom are reduced to the Other by the patriarchal society.Hence,some ecofeminists approach ecological issues from a gender perspective,asserting that the root of ecological crises or environmental degradation is patriarchy or androcentrism rather than anthoropocentrism.Meanwhile,they point out that male domination of female and man's rule over nature are deeply rooted in the patriarchal ideology and therefore must be subjected to severe criticism.The Autobiography of My Mother,a representative work of Jamaica Kincaid,tells from the first⁃person narrative the heroine's miserable yet legendary life as well as the tragic fate of her stepmother,Lisa,and Moira,from which a conclusion can be drawn that women under patriarchy are bound to lose themselves and become victims of male⁃centered society regardless of their skin color.In addition,the author elaborates a painful colonial history with grace and rhythm,presenting a unique landscape of Dominica and its environmental destruction as a consequence of long⁃term colonial plunder.In a nutshell,the story reflects Jamaica's care and concern about women's fate and natural ecosystem in the post⁃colonial context.