19世纪末20世纪初美国国家公园正当性话语的建构

The Construction of Propriety Discourse of the American National Parks in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

19世纪末20世纪初,在倡导对自然资源进行开发与利用的历史语境中,国家公园这种相悖于传统、将自然资源“锁起来”的公共土地利用模式,时常遭到美国功利主义开发势力的质疑和挑战。在支持国家公园的美国社会精英看来,国家公园保存的都是“无与伦比的风景”,是能够彰显美国独特性的国家骄傲。他们一方面构建国家公园土地对于传统资源开发乃是“无用之地”的形象,另一方面极力阐释国家公园在经济、社会、文化、科学、教育等方面的功用和益处,及其相异于其他“美国公地”的独特性,从而形成了一套塑造国家公园正当性的话语体系。该话语体系既接续了美国浪漫主义和民族主义风景观念,迎合了“后边疆时代”美国精英阶层的荒野文化心理,又从实用主义的角度发掘出国家公园在美国经济社会发展中的多重“资源”价值,最终促使国家公园在美国人的自然认知和经济社会体系中确立了正当性。

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries,the American society advocated the development and utilisation of natural resources.In this context,the national parks,as a using mode of the public lands that‘locked in'natural resources and contradicted the development and utilisation tradition,were often questioned and challenged by supporters of the traditional utilitarian forces.In the view of the American social elites who supported the establishment of the national parks,the preserved unparalleled landscapes'were a source of the national pride and highlighted the uniqueness of the United States.On the one hand,they constructed an image that the national parks were‘useless lands'for the traditional ways of resource utilisation.On the other hand,they strongly stressed the national parks'economic,social cultural,scientific and educational functions and values,and the uniqueness of the national parks compared to other"American Commons"of this period.Consequently,they constructed a set of discourses to justify the establishment of the national parks.Such discourses not only followed the‘landscape'concept embedded in romanticism and nationalism,but also catered to cultural needs of the American elite in the'post-frontier era'.At the same time,they explicated multiple values of the national parks as'resources'for the economic and social development of the United States.Overall,those discourses legitimised the role of the national parks in the American socio-economic system.The national parks eventually became widely accepted by the American people.