薇拉·凯瑟和杰克·伦敦作品中的性别与风景

Gender and Landscape in the Works of Willa Cather and Jack London

美国文化中存在着将风景女性化的传统。男性是风景的凝视者,风景被女性化。20世纪初至30年代,在美国社会从荒野到文明、从前现代到现代化的历史转型期,薇拉·凯瑟和杰克·伦敦大胆挑战美国传统风景观。凯瑟的女主人公是内布拉斯加草原精神的象征,女性与风景相互融合、相互成就。伦敦的后期作品塑造自立自强的女性,提倡平等的两性关系和人地关系。两位作家的风景叙事都具有国家意义,呈现鲜明的美国地域特征和美学特征,他们共同的理想化风景观是人与去性别化风景和睦共处。

One of the American cultural traditions is the feminization of landscape. It signifies that landscape is the object of the masculine gaze and landscape is to be feminized. The period between the start of the 20century and the 1930 s witnessed the historical transformation from the wilderness to the civilized, from pre-modern to modern society. Willa Cather and Jack London challenged the notion of American traditional landscape. Female characters in Cather’s works became the symbol of the Nebraska Prairie. The new kind of relationship between women and landscape is integration and mutual accomplishments. In his later works, London portrayed self-reliant female protagonists, and advocated equal gender relations and human-land relationship. Landscape narratives of both writers are of national significance. Their landscape narratives display the distinctive regional traits and aesthetic features of America. Their common and ideal landscape notion is the harmonious existence between mankind and non-gendered landscape.