疏远的亲近感——美国文学现代怀旧叙事模式的多元建构

Distant Intimacy: The Multiple Construction of Modern Nostalgic Narrative Patterns in American Literature

现代性对归属感的载体——社会纽带与共同体造成了系统性的破坏,而美国性放大了上述负面效应。由此造成的归属感危机,促使许多美国作家在远离现实的时空找寻象征性的精神家园。在此过程中,主流的竞争性自治范式迫使他们规避传统的怀旧叙事模式,转而依靠朦胧的共情和抽象的价值认同来重塑归属感的边界,演化出了分离型恋情、漂泊型友情、松散同质型志趣共同体等三种主要的现代怀旧叙事模式。其核心特征是自治、混沌、易维护、可持续,有助于个体在不依赖他人的情况下,获得相对稳定的想象性归属感,弥补现实中归属感的缺失。此类怀旧叙事模式在美国文学中的重复再生产,说明它们高度适应现代美国社会,也令怀旧成为美国文学中的一个重要母题。

While modernity has caused systematic damages to the carriers of sense of belonging, namely, social ties and communities, the notion of Americanness has made things even worse. Consequently, this crisis in the sense of belonging prompted many American writers to seek a symbolic spiritual home in spaces and times far from reality. In doing so, the mainstream paradigm of competitive autonomy forces them to evade traditional nostalgic narrative patterns, but instead rely on a liminal state of empathy and abstract value identification in reconstructing the boundaries in their sense of belonging, hence evolving through three major modern nostalgic narrative patterns: Separated Romance, Friendship in Adventures, and Loose-Homogenous Interest Community. Their core characteristics are autonomy, liminality,low maintenance, and high sustainability, which could help individuals acquire a relatively stable sense of belonging and make up for the lack of belonging in reality without relying on others. The recurrence of such a nostalgic narrative pattern in American literature not only shows their high adaptability to modern American society, but also turns nostalgia into a major motif in American literature.