《论美》中的视觉与真实

The Visual and the Real in On Beauty

史密斯的小说《论美》在故事讲述和人物塑造方面显示出视觉书写的特征,尤其是在女性形象塑造方面,作者频繁地借助语象叙事的方式以画喻人。小说中分别以毕加索的运水工、维罗妮卡的肖像和海波利特的埃尔祖莉来比拟小说中的女性人物。然而,画作与女性形象之间的差异以及画作本身的审美误读展示出视觉与真实之间关系的悖论,并由此揭示出女性形象被曲解的真实。史密斯也以戏仿语象叙事的方式来揭示以白为美的种族主义审美标准和以男性为尊的性别文化对女性自我真实的掩盖与抹杀,以女性现实主义的方式对抗男性对女性的凝视和禁锢。

Smith's novel On Beauty exhibits the feature of visual writing in both storytelling and character portrayal,especially in the portrayal of female images.By way of ekphrasis,the""Water Carrier"by Picasso,Veronica's portrait and"Erzulie"by Hippolyte are employed to represent the female characters.However,the differences between the portraits and the female images,as well as the aesthetic misreading of the portraits themselves,expose the paradox of the relationship between the visual and the real and thus unveil the truth of female images being distorted.By parodying the poetic technique of ekphrasis,Smith reveals that women's true selves are covered or obliterated by the racist aesthetic standard of taking the white as the beautiful and the sexual culture of taking the male as the authority.It thus can be seen that the novel confronts men's gaze upon and confinement of women through feminist realism.