大流感、一战与英雄——薇拉·凯瑟《我们的一员》中的大流感

The Great Flu Pandemic, World War Ⅰ, and Heroes:The Great Flu in Willa Cather’s One of Ours

《我们的一员》将大流感与一战相叠加,沿袭了古典瘟疫书写传统,将美国远征军构建为“英雄”形象。讴歌“英雄”既是作家的亲情使然,又助推了战后美国的英雄纪念话语。通过将死于大流感的官兵纳入“英雄”范畴,作家挑战了一战后将阵亡将士视为“英雄”的狭隘观点,从而将大流感对美国远征军的侵袭经由文学而带入集体记忆,但对“英雄”形象的渲染回避了对大流感重创美军的人为原因的历史追责。

By following the classical plague writing tradition, Willa Cather superimposes the Great Flu Pandemic and World War Ⅰ in One of Ours, which contributes to the characterization of the American Expeditionary Force as “heroes”. The eulogy of “heroes” not only derives from Cather’s mourning of her cousin, but also constitutes and promotes the post-war American hero-commemoration discourse. By including those dying of the pandemic into the signified of the hero, the writer challenges its narrow definition after WWI, and brings the great cost of AEF caused by the pandemic into the collective memory through literature. However, the rendering of the hero avoids historical accountability for the man-made errors that caused AEF’s great loss in the pandemic.