《大主教之死》的美国西南历史再现与现代性批判悖论

Historical Representation of the American Southwest and Paradox in the Archbishop

本文聚焦《大主教之死》文本内外的美国西南空间动迁,揭示薇拉·凯瑟在小说中的历史转向并非出于对现实的逃避,而意在借古喻今。主人公解辖域化式的传教之旅寄寓着作家对20世纪初美国现代性因逐新求变的特质而引发的物质主义、审美降级等问题的质疑与反思。不过,主人公创建美国天主教区的历程,亦参与并推动了19世纪的西扩运动。这一再辖域化改造隐含着作家对美国西南现代空间再生产的肯定,从而暗示了其现代性批判中存在着无法调和的矛盾。

By focusing on the spatial movements concerning the American Southwest within and outside the text of Death Comes for the Archbishop,this paper argues that Willa Cather's historical turn signaled by this novel is not an escape from reality,but rather an effort to contemplate the present by treating the past as an irony.The protagonist's deterritorializational missions embody Cather's reflection on materialism and aesthetic degradation caused by the pursuit of newness,the intrinsic attribute of modernity,in the early 20th century.However,the establishment of an American Catholic diocese indicates the protagonist's participation in and promotion of Westward Expansion in the 19th century.This process of reterritorialization reveals Cather's affirmation of the reproduction of modern space in the American Southwest,thereby implying irreconcilable contradictions in her critique of modernity.