论《苍白之王》的无聊表征及其文化意蕴

Representations and cultural implications of boredom in The Pale King

无聊是个体的情感表征,也是考察社会历史环境的视点。大卫·福斯特·华莱士的遗作《苍白之王》聚焦后现代美国社会的无聊病症,蕴含对新自由主义的批判与反思。通过揭露景观消费和情感剥削双重辖制下的无聊动因,探讨娱乐、怀旧和注意力等三种形式的乌托邦属性,小说再现了美国伊利诺伊州皮奥里亚市国税局员工的情感困境。然而,员工拥有抵抗无聊的潜力,既能诉诸欲望转移实现人际间的情感连接,也可通过集体出走逃离情感劳动的操控。华莱士还在读者层面呼唤公众群体和情感自由,开拓新自由主义语境下的情感出路。

Except for representing individual emotion,boredom serves as a vantage point of probing into sociocultural condi-tions as well.David Foster Wallace’s posthumous work,The Pale King,interrogates neoliberal American society through its representations of boredom.Due to spectacle-induced consumption and emotional exploitation,IRS employees in Peoria,Illi-nois suffer from constant boredom.Despite their failed approaches to evading boredom,including entertainment,nostalgia,and attention,the employees can resort to interpersonal connections and collective exodus in hope of resuming emotional auton-omy.Wallace also urges readers to form"the multitude"and achieve emotional autonomy under neoliberal governmentality.