骑士型种植园主、文化适应与印第安性——论《奇瓦部族的酋长》之跨种族共同体建构书写

Planter-Cavalier,Acculturation and Indianness:The Construction of Interracial Community in The Cassique of Kiawah

在19世纪中期美国政府对印第安人推行文明开化与强制同化的政策背景下,威廉·吉尔摩·西姆斯在其历史罗曼司作品《奇瓦部族的酋长》中对白人与印第安人之间跨种族的共同体构建进行了讽喻式书写。就共同体的领导者而言,西姆斯融合了美国当时诸多流行的男性气概范式,塑造出具有骑士精神的白人贵族精英形象作为理想的种植园主阶层载体;白人与印第安人之间的文化适应,作为对19世纪中期美国对印第安人强制性教化的反动,被当作共同体建构的主要手段;通过印第安人对自身文化传统坚守的呈现,西姆斯深入思考了如何利用印第安性来丰富跨种族共同体的身份构建问题。

Against the backdrop of the cultural assimilation and enforced civilization of the Native Americans th by the American government in the mid-19 century,William Gilmore Simms has written allegorically on the construction of a multiracial community between the white men and the Native Americans in his historical romance The Cassique of Kiawah.As for the leader of the community,Simms has integrated many then prevailing paradigms of manhood in America and portrayed the chivalric white patrician elite as an embodiment of the planter ideal.The mutual acculturation between the white men and the Native Americans,as a counteract of the th enforced cultivation of the Native American people by the American government in the mid-19 century,is a major means of forging the community.By representing the Native American’s adherence to the cultural traditions of themselves,Simms has probed into how to make use of Indianness to enrich the identification construction in the interracial community that he has envisioned.