论德莱塞小说的悲剧性——透视美国政治制度下的人际关系

The Tragedy in Dreiser's Novels The Perspective of the Human Relationship Under the American Political System

美国小说家德莱塞以悲剧为题材,展示了20世纪初叶美国政治制度下的人际关系,揭示了人的本质、美国人在社会变革中的位置及其变更,记录了上层社会的荒淫无耻和下层社会平民的痛苦呻吟,以其独特的悲剧氛围,体现出作家的悲剧审美价值观。泛性论是其小说悲剧氛围的主要特征之一。在这种可怕的悲剧氛围中,读者从张力和"距离"的接受心理出发,感受到痛苦中的快感,同时也更加清楚地认识到这场悲剧产生的社会政治因素以及人本质中阴暗的一面,从而使人们的心灵得到净化,社会责任感得到提高。

Theodore Dreiser, by the means of tragedy, displays the human relationship under the American political system, describing the tragic environment of the American social life at the beginning of the 20th century, revealing human beings' true nature and their positions in the social changes, recording the dark side of the upper classes and the miseries of the ordinary citizens and showing the novelist's aesthetic value in tragedy. Sex is one of the main features in his tragic atmosphere, with which some of the characters become victims, some evil creatures while others both in one. Distance, the receiving psychology, plays an important part in appreciating Dreiser's novels, by which the readers can get their soul purified and their social responsibility enhanced.