彰显与遮蔽:《潜水鸟》女性身份建构之不可靠叙述

Highlight and Obscurity:On the Unreliable Narration of Feminine-identity Construction in The Loons

《潜水鸟》以对印第安文化认知阙如的白人女孩的文化视角,叙述了印第安女孩皮戈特的人生悲剧,以“他者”的眼光“见证”了主人公从少女到母亲的身份转变。小说叙事中,主人公追寻女性身份的结果叙述(成为时髦都市女郎、妻子、母亲)基本取代了其社会、种族身份的建构过程。相对于女性身份追寻的彰显,主人公社会、种族身份建构沦为叙事空白。第一人称不可靠叙述和叙事空白隐射少数族裔身份建构的出路在于主动发声、自我叙述,而非墨守传统,任由他人代言。

The Loons narrates the tragic life of a native American girl from the cultural perspective of a white girl,totally strange to native American culture,who“witnesses”Piquette s transformation from girlhood to motherhood.In the narration,the protagonist s pursuit of gender identity as a with-It urban teenager,wife and mother obscures the construction of her social and ethnic identities,which fall into narrative ellipsis.Unreliable first-person participant narrative and narrative ellipsis are employed insinuating an alternative way of constructing one s ethnic identity:to voluntarily narrate his own story instead of silent and stubborn adherence to old traditions,waiting to be voiced by others.