优素福的选择:从拉康的凝视理论视角解读

Yusuf's Choice:An Interpretation from the Perspective of Lacan's Theory of Gaze

在古尔纳的小说《天堂》的结尾,主人公优素福从藏身之处出来,主动追上去加入德国的非洲土著兵队伍,这个情节“给那些试图理解小说结尾的研究者们带来了挑战”。用拉康的凝视理论来观照小说中描写的凝视,可以发现优素福在前镜子阶段、镜子阶段以及后镜子阶段的几次凝视中逐步构建了强权的、神化的德国殖民者形象。同时,在“想象的凝视”中,优素福作为自己凝视的客体,逐渐自我认同为驯顺的臣服者,这解释了优素福在小说最后的主动臣服。同优素福一样,非洲人作为一个群体,在对德国殖民者的群体凝视中,逐步完成了对德国人的符号性委任以及对自我的符号性认同。非洲人群体的凝视将被凝视者(德国人)放置在国王的位置上,也将凝视者(非洲人)放置在臣民的位置上,德国人的国王地位一定程度上由双方共同合作构建。因此,从拉康的凝视理论角度看,优素福最后主动加入非洲土著兵队伍的选择,不是“自我解放”,而是他在凝视中构建德国殖民者形象与自我臣服者形象共同作用的结果,等待他的将不是“天堂”,而是另一个更糟糕的地狱。

At the end of Gurnah's paradise,Yusuf,the protagonist,comes out of his hiding place,runs after the German askaris and voluntarily joins it.This“has challenged scholars who have sought to make sense of the novel's ending”.Drawing upon Lacan's theory about gaze to examine the gazes in the novel,this paper finds that in the several encounters of gazes with the Germans at the pre⁃,while⁃,and post⁃mirror stages,Yusuf gradually constructs a powerful and God⁃like image for the German colonizers.Meanwhile,in“the gaze of the imaginary”,Yusuf becomes an object of his own gaze and gradually identifies himself as a docile subaltern.This explains Yusuf's initiative submission at the end of the story.The other Africans as a group,like Yusuf,gradually conduct in their gazes at the the colonizers their symbolic mandates of the German colonizers as well as their own symbolic identification.The Africans'gaze put the gazed(the Germans)at the position of the king,and meanwhile put themselves,the gazers,at the position of the subalterns.To a certain extent,the Germans'position as the king is constructed through the cooperation of the two parties.Therefore,from the perspective of Lacan's theory about gaze,Yusuf's choice to voluntarily join the askaris at the end of the novel is not“self⁃emancipation”.It is the result of a combination of his image construction of the German colonizers and his self⁃identification as a submissive subaltern.What waits ahead of Yusuf is not a“paradise”but a worse hell.