麦尔维尔中篇小说《贝尼托·塞雷诺》中的奴隶贸易和人道主义

The Slave Trade and Humanitarianism in Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno

本文追踪麦尔维尔中篇小说《贝尼托·塞雷诺》中很少被人研究过的奴隶贸易的含义。通过对人性和人道主义的历史和理论追踪溯源,本文指出德拉诺不仅认同南方不连贯的、类似人道主义的奴隶监护逻辑,而且拥护奴隶贸易的非人性化条款,以便克服因奴隶复活其人性施为而造成的精神危机。结果,尽管巴波精心致力于恢复人的个性,但奴隶叛乱者最终还是悲惨地困入由德拉诺和种族奴隶制度为自身之便而动用的人性与非人性这两个相悖的模式之中。

This essay keeps track of the slave trade’s little examined implications in Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno. By unpacking the historical and theoretical archives of humanness and humanitarianism, the essay scrutinizes Delano’s racial unconscious. I point out that Delano not only subscribes to the South’s incoherent, quasi-humanitarian logic of slave caring, but also espouses the dehumanizing terms of the slave trade, in order to overcome psychic crisis caused by the reanimated human agency of slaves. Ultimately, despite Babo’s astute performance to reclaim the human personhood, slave mutineers end up tragically caught in the differing modalities of humanity and inhumanity deployed by Delano and racial slavery to their convenience.