作为道德记录的自传——评戴安妮·比约克伦德《理解自我》

Autobiography as a Kind of Moral Document: A Review of DianeBjorklund's Interpretation of the Self:Two Hundred Years of American Autobiography

自传并不只是一种个人性叙事,它还反映出自传作者(也即传主)所处时代的文化与社会精神风貌。通过对1800年以降美国出版的自传的文本分析,比约克伦德考察了自我的建构如何随时间发生变化。她从中提出了四种自我的类型:从19世纪早期作为道德表演的自我,到19世纪晚期至20世纪早期作为个人命运主人的自我,再到20世纪前半期不确定的自我,最后是20世纪晚期以来被围困的自我。就其本质而言.自传乃是一种道德记录。

Autobiographies are not merely personal narratives,but also reflect the cultural and social ethos of the time in which the autobiographers lived.By analyzing autobiographies published since 1800,Diane Bjorklund illustrated how self-constructions change over time.She presents four types of the self??the self as the moral performance in early 19th century,the self as the master of fate in late 19th century and early 20th century,the uncertain self in the first half of 20th century,and the beleaguered self since late 20th century.Intrinsically,autobiographies are moral documents.