自然天性和社会文化的进化论:科学生态批评视角下《耻》所呈现的社会生态

Evolutionism of Both Natural Nature and Social Culture: The Social Ecology in Disgrace Observed from the Perspective of Scientific Ecocriticism

在库切笔下,人性不是抽象的理想化建构,而是由动物天性和具体的社会文化融合而成。在《耻》中,人的生命活力与自然赋予人类的动物性特征密不可分,但理性主义统治下的环境和体制摧残主人公天然的生命力,而殖民主义所遗留的畸形社会文化,威胁着主人公的田园理想和生命安全。主人公艰难地适应生存环境和寻求精神活力的过程,揭示出后殖民时代南非社会生态的深层病症,也体现出人的生物本能和文化属性共同抗拒反生态的社会体制及文化的诉求,是人类在自然和社会层面上双重进化的寓言。本文借鉴科学生态批评的视角,以进化论思维分析小说人物,在揭示库切独特的书写方式的同时,探讨以生态科学辅助生态批评的研究方法所具有的优越性。

In Coetzee’s novels,human nature is not an abstract idealistic construction,but a fusion of animal nature and concrete social cultures.In Disgrace,the vitality of humans is inseparable from the animal characteristics that Nature gives to human beings,but the circumstances and system under the rule of rationalism destroy the natural vitality of the protagonists,and the deformed social culture left over by colonialism threatens the protagonists’life and idyllic ideal.Their difficult adaptation to the living environment and their pursuit of spiritual vitality reveals the deep-rooted illness of South Africa’s social ecology in the post-colonial era,and also reflects the joint demand of human’s biological instincts and cultural attributes for resisting the anti-ecological social system and cultures,which makes a fable of human’s dual evolution at both the natural and social levels.Drawing on the perspective of scientific ecocriticism,this paper analyzes the novel characters with evolutionarythinking,explores the unique writing style of Coetzee,and reveals the advantages of using ecological science to assist ecocritical practice.