对话与狂欢——惠特曼复调艺术的现代性批判与共同体想象

Dialogism and Carnivalism:Critique of Modernity and Communal Imagination in Whitman’s Polyphonic Artistry

从惠特曼诗歌的"复调性"入手,解读《草叶集》的"对话性"和"狂欢化",讨论其中的现代性批判与工人阶级共同体想象。"对话性"标志着"独白"世界的崩塌,即底层人群的多声部对话对帝国工业、殖民强权和种族暴力的抗击与消解。同时,"对话性"也包含不同主体意识的交互往来形成的现代性批判和对独立、自由等精神价值的寻求。"狂欢广场"和"宴席"塑造开放性社会结构,突破等级化壁垒,使民主和平等的新型秩序得以呈现。"同志情谊"和"国家精神"的重建打造以人民为主体的国家构想,体现了多元化历史文化背景下个体对平权的追求、共同体成员价值认同以及把美国作为"现实故乡"的归属感。

Starting from the polyphonism in Whitman’s poetry,this paper interprets dialogism and carnivalism in Leaves of Grass,discussing its critique of modernity and its communal imagination of the working class.Dialogism symbolizes the crash and fall of the monologic world,which results from the combat with and deconstruction of the existing imperial industry,colonial hegemony,and racial violence by polyphonic dialogues among the lower classes.Dialogism also includes the critique of modernity and the pursuit of spiritual values such as independence and freedom,enhanced by mutual communications between different subjects.Carnivalistic square and banquet shape an open social structure,piecing through class boundaries and engendering a new social order as exhibited by democracy and equality.Comradeship and country spirit promote the idea of rebuilding a country with people as the its primacy.They also embody individuals’pursuit of equal rights and the recognition of communal membership in a multi-cultural historic context where individual members may have sense of belonging that take the U.S.as their realistic homeland.Whitman’s polyphonic artistry initiates a new direction of modern poetry,and becomes the ideological banner of the new world,encouraging the proletariats across the world to defeat capitalist powers and turn over a new page in history.