孤独·愧疚·自由——《刻骨铭心》的后殖民主义解读

Solitude,Guilt,and Freedom:A Postcolonial Reading of Under My Skin

《刻骨铭心》是英国著名女作家多丽丝·莱辛的首部自传,讲述了她从1919年出生到1949年等待回到英国这之间30年的人生。在后殖民主义的视角下,该书是一部反思和重识“自我”的回忆录。莱辛以一种痛苦但决绝的语气,生动还原了自己的前半生,不仅对自我进行了深刻的剖析,同时也对殖民地生活作了第一视角的解读。本文采用萨义德的对位阅读等后殖民批评方法,通过探究莱辛在孤独、愧疚的心理历程中寻求独立的无畏尝试,揭示了在帝国殖民主义背景下知识女性追求自由的精神。

Under My Skin(1994) is the first volume of Doris Lessing’s autobiography. From a postcolonial perspective, Under My Skin is an autobiography that explores and reconsiders the “self”. In a painful yet assertive manner, Lessing recalls the first third of her life, deeply analyzing her inner mind and providing a unique interpretation of the social phenomena around her. Through the construction of various real “others” in Under My Skin, Lessing depicts the irreparable effect of colonization and empire that deeply affected her family, herself, and the African population in Southern Rhodesia with the intention of implying the end of imperialism. By drawing on Edward Said’s postcolonial concept of “contrapuntal reading”, this paper analyzes Lessing’s fearless attempts to gain independence despite her feelings of solitude and guilt, and reveals the cruel reality experienced by an intellectual woman in the pursuit of freedom during the imperial colonial period.