论理查三世畸形身体中的动物他性和国体隐喻

The Animality and National Allegory in Richard III’s Deformity

莎士比亚的历史剧《理查三世》是英国早期现代社会对畸形身体探究的一个经典文本。在剧中,理查三世的畸形身体被政敌贬损为动物他者,不仅是邪恶和非道德的表征,而且作为修辞载体,隐喻了玫瑰战争时期失序和病态的国体。具有颠覆性的是,理查三世打破了人们对畸形身体的刻板印象,他对身体政治的能动性操演反映出早期现代理性主义和平等主义对等级秩序的破坏和现代主体意识的觉醒。理查三世的复杂形象是政治、宗教、历史和社会偏见共同形塑的结果。

William Shakespeare’s history play, Richard III, is a classical text that explores physical deformity in early modern England. In the play, Richard III’s deformed body is debased not only as the animal other that embodies evil and immorality, but also as a rhetorical carrier for the disordered and sickly state during the War of the Roses. What is subversive is that Richard III destructs the stereotypes toward deformed body. His dynamic performance of body politics reflects the dismantling of the hierarchical order by the early modern rationalism and egalitarianism on the one hand and, on the other, the awakening of modern subjective consciousness. The complex image of Richard III is constructed, jointly, by politics, religion,history, and social prejudice.