“不存在的地基”——生态视阈下《无所庇护》中的美国中产阶级问题解析

"Nonexistent Foundation":An Analysis of the American Middle Class in Unsheltered From an Ecological Perspective

美国当代女作家芭芭拉·金索沃在小说《无所庇护》中表现出对美国当代社会不平等问题与政治动荡的密切关注,以及对中产阶级生存境遇的深刻忧虑。金索沃通过对比19世纪与21世纪美国两个中产阶级家庭窘迫的生存境遇,对“美国梦”一以贯之的虚伪性作出了批判。在《无所庇护》中,小说中的地名、主人公身份、情节隐喻都与“生态”这一概念密切相关,暗示了作家将生态思想融入对社会和文化批判之中的做法。本文借用了生态系统、食物链、捕食者、生态平衡等多个生态学中的核心理念,对小说中不同时代的中产阶级危机根源进行分析,揭示了文学作为“社会现实矛盾之想象性解决”这一理念所能提供的潜在能动性及其局限性。

In her novel Unsheltered,contemporary American author Barbara Kingsolver closely examines issues of inequality and political turmoil in modern American society,alongside a profound concern for the plight of the middle class.By juxtaposing the precarious circumstances of two American middle-class families from the 19th and 21st centuries,Kingsolver critiques the enduring hypocrisy of the"American Dream".The novel's settings,character identities,and plot metaphors are intricately tied to the concept of"ecology",reflecting the author's integration of ecological thought into her social and cultural critique.This study employs multiple core concepts from ecology,including ecosystem,food chain,predator,and ecological balance,to analyze the root causes of middle-class crises in different eras as portrayed in the novel.It reveals both the potential agency and limitations inherent in the notion of literature as"an imaginary resolution of real social contradictions".