“差异”的政治:论巴巴拉·约翰逊的解构主义修辞与文化批评

The Politics of Difference:On Barbara Johnson's Deconstructive Rhetorical and Cultural Criticism

巴巴拉·约翰逊是美国解构主义理论发生“现实转向”的代表性人物。她承继保罗·德曼等人的解构主义语言和修辞观,将之与女性主义、族裔研究及文化批评融合,实践解构性的政治文化批判。“差异”是约翰逊质诘文本意义与文化政治统一性的核心概念,在语言层面指向的是能指符号的阈限性、随意性与神秘化,文本结构维度体现为不确定的句法、“言行”的矛盾、主题与事例的龃龉,女性主义文本中则演变成抵抗性自我差异的书写。约翰逊的解构批评力图突破语言—现实、形式—内容和谐统一的传统有机诗论,推敲文本意义产生的前提与方式而不止于意义本身。约翰逊倡导回归文本复杂精细的语言修辞和文法结构而非“理论先行”,注重体认文本的差异性和他异性,这些对重新省察解构主义及今日的文学批评究皆有特殊的意义。

A representative figure in initiating deconstruction's turn to reality,Barbara Johnson innovatively applies the de Mannian theory of language and rhetoric to her politico-cultural critique in the realms of feminism,minority studies and cultural criticism."Difference"stands as the core concept in Johnson's questioning of unification in texts and cultural politics.It signifies liminality,randomness and the mystery of language,syntactical undecidability,confliction between"doing and saying",theme and evidence,and the writing of female differences in self-resistance.Johnson's deconstructive criticism breaks down the traditional poetic unity between language and reality and form and content,focusing on how texts work rather than simply what they mean.By advocating a return to the intricate patterns and structures in language and texts over a perverse obsession with theory,and by focusing on textual difference and alterity,Johnson makes a timely contribution to the rethinking of both poststructuralism and literary studies today.