多元混杂性:多丽丝·莱辛《追寻英国性》中的族群身份认同

Hybridity:the Ethnic Identity in Doris Lessing’s In Pursuit of the English

《追寻英国性》是英国作家多丽丝·莱辛的自传性纪实作品,讲述了莱辛初到伦敦时期的一段移民生活经历。莱辛以房屋为表征,探讨了围绕英国性的族群冲突的本质,表达了她对族群身份认同的看法。这一看法对全球化时代族群混杂的当下社会具有现实意义,而目前学界对此部作品的研究还较少,具有较大开拓空间。本文运用霍米·巴巴身份混杂性理论,阐释莱辛对本质主义的英国身份属性合理性的质疑,探究了作为建构移民身份的第三空间的多元混杂性特征。通过描写公寓中房客与房东的种种矛盾,莱辛形象地隐喻了英国的社会现实,从追寻个人的族群身份扩展至群体的族群身份,解构了英国人身份的本质主义属性,揭示了其历史渊源与核心特征,突出了多元混杂性在建构当代新型族群身份中的作用。

In Pursuit of the English is an autobiographical work by the distinguished English writer,Doris Lessing,which relates her experiences as an immigrant when she fi rst moved to London.Taking her apartment as a symbol of the UK,Lessing explores the nature of the ethnic conflicts surrounding“Englishness”,and expresses her views about ethnic identity.Lessing’s observations of ethnic groups are of practical signifi cance in the current globalized society that consists of diverse ethnic groups.However,there is little research on this work,which requires further exploration.In this paper,Homi Bhabha’s hybridity theory is employed to explain Lessing’s doubts about the rationality of essentialist identity and to explore the third space,which is characterized by hybridity,in the construction of the immigrant identity.Lessing fi guratively reveals the social reality by describing the contradictions between the tenants and the landlords of the apartment block,ranging from an individual’s pursuit of ethnic identity to the ethnic identity of the group.In this work,Lessing deconstructs the essentialism of British identity and reveals the historical origin and core characteristics of ethnic identity,in addition to highlighting the importance of hybridity in constructing a new ethnic identity.