论格林《问题的核心》中的男性焦虑

Masculine Anxiety in Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter

格林战后小说的经典《问题的核心》常被置于宗教道德的范畴加以解读,但近年来性别研究的发展提供了新的解读视角。本文结合康奈尔的男性气质理论,尤其是其中关于支配性男性气质的规范性和动态性的论述,认为小说有力地展示了曾在英帝国扩张期发挥巨大作用的支配性男性气质在新挑战面前的左支右绌及由此产生的深刻男性焦虑。阿诺德等19世纪英国文人所大力提倡的道德与文化已经难以为继,不能为英国白人男性殖民者提供足够的精神力量来应对新的复杂环境。警察斯考比最终被密探威尔逊所取代。然而,这一代际的交替并未成功指向新的支配性男性气质。小说的关注点不在于构建新的男性气质,而重在表达斯考比陨灭所表现出的战后普遍男性焦虑。

Graham Greene’s post-war classic The Heart of the Matter used to be interpreted in perspectives of religion and morality.Cast in the new light of R.W.Connell’s masculinity studies,particularly her theories about the normativity and dynamism of hegemonic masculinity,the novel can be read as a forceful expression of the intense anxiety over the dysfunctioning of the hegemonic masculinity that contributed much to the expansion of the British Empire.Morality and culture,much advocated by great Victorian scholars like Mathew Arnold,no longer provide power enough to ensure white Englishmen’s capacity to deal with alien situations.The replacement of Scobie the policeman by Wilson the spy points to an alternative yet unsatisfactory masculinity.The focus of the novel,therefore,is not on possible contents of alternative masculinities,but on the prevalent post-war anxiety over the loss of a once hegemonic masculinity as exemplified by Scobie’s fall.