土地、战争与男性气质——论鲍恩小说《最后的九月》中男性气质的构建

Land,War and Masculinity——On the Formation of Masculinity in Bowen’s Novel The Last September

性别研究中关于“男性气质”的相关理论,为伊丽莎白·鲍恩的长篇小说《最后的九月》提供新的研究视角。19世纪末20世纪初,爱尔兰历史上的两大事件——土地运动和独立战争——对爱尔兰本土男性气质的构建产生了极大的影响。在特殊的历史文化语境下,《最后的九月》中的不同的男性群体的气质类型不可避免地的缺失、蜕变和扭曲,由此揭示鲍恩的男性气质观:男性气质的主张离不开道德的约束和引导;男性气质并非天生,它受不同阶级、种族、宗教的影响,在历史和社会框架中形成。

This paper attempts to reinterpret Elizabeth Bowen’s novel The Last September by the relative theories of“masculinity”in gender studies.In the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century,two major events(the Land Movement and the War of Independence)in Irish history exerted great influence on the construction of Irish native masculinity.The paper analyzes the absence,transformation and distortion of masculinity in The Last September under the special historical and cultural context and reveals Bowen’s view of masculinity.The study shows that the proposition of masculinity cannot be separated from the restraint and guidance of morality.Furthermore,masculinity is not innate but shaped within historical and social frameworks on account of class,race,and religion.