无从逃避的创伤 无法建构的身份——创伤视角下《美国牧歌》中犹太裔青年的生存困境

Unavoidable trauma and unconstructed identity:The dilemma of life for the American Jewish youths in American Pastoral in light of trauma

在《美国牧歌》中,菲利普·罗斯塑造了梅丽这个前期乖巧可爱、后期叛逆疯癫的人物形象。从创伤视角切入,可以发现其行为是创伤后应激障碍的表现,其遭遇绝不止于单一个人所遭受的创伤,而是反映了20世纪60年代美国犹太青年的集体创伤,其深层原因是纳粹大屠杀和越南战争所带来的代际创伤及教育冲突所造成的身份混乱、宗教混杂所造成的犹太性缺失,直接恶果是美国犹太裔青年人自我身份建构的困境。罗斯警示犹太民族期许的美国“牧歌”如果没有犹太民族的身份认同及维系必将化为“悲歌”,无从逃避。

In American Pastoral, Philip Roth portrays Merry changing from a cute little girl to a rebellious and crazy teenager. It can be found, in light of trauma, that all her actions actually reflect her post-traumatic stress disorder, and that her sufferings not only connect with her individual trauma, but reflect the collective trauma of the American Jewish youths in the 1960 s. Furthermore this collective trauma is deeply inflicted by the trans-generational trauma of the Holocaust and the Vietnam War. The identity loss caused by the educational conflicts, and the lack of Jewishness due to the religious clashes result in the predicament of the identity construction of the American Jewish youths, putting forward a warning that without identification with the Jewish identity and its maintenance, the American “pastoral” being pursued by the Jews will inevitably end up as a tragedy.