黑人、犹太人、城市人——评索尔·贝娄中晚期城市小说中的种族问题

Blacks, Jews, City People: Racial Issues in Saul Bellow’s Mid-and Late Urban Fictions

贝娄在其中期和后期创作的城市小说中赋予了黑人完全不同的形象,从《塞姆勒先生的行星》、《院长的十二月》、《更多的人死于心碎》到《拉维尔斯坦》,贝娄不遗余力地将种族问题提上日程。即便贝娄在创作晚期一再强调其犹太身份,他仍然置身于美国的城市形态变迁中思考种族问题,并给予历史和种族问题一种新的观察视角。本文将以贝娄中期和晚期的城市小说为例,结合城市社会学对贝娄的种族观念展开讨论,同时挖掘贝娄城市小说中的深层犹太文化内涵,探讨贝娄中晚期小说中对黑人问题的不同立场。

Saul Bellow renovated the Black image in the urban fictions of his mid-and late writing career.Discussion of racial issues is offered unsparingly in his novels such as Mr.Sammler’s Planet,The Dean’s December,More Die of Heartbreak and Ravelstein.With repeated affirmation of his Jewish identity in his later career,he meditated on racial issues within a larger American context,providing a new perspective for probing into historical and racial issues.An exploration of Bellow’s racial attitude from an urban sociological perspective will be carried out so as to understand the covert Jewish culture behind his fiction.