《长日留痕》中“门槛处的人”——伟大管家的情感“阈限空间”

“Threshold People” in The Remains of the Day—Emotional “Liminary Space” of the Great Butler

身体作为最小的空间场所,折射着现代人的情感真实。石黑一雄的长篇小说《长日留痕》借助英国贵族达林顿府的管家史蒂文斯的回忆完成了长达六天的自省之旅。该小说反复提及关于身体的具象隐喻,其背后复杂的情感空间的问题似乎少有研究。本文以此为关注点,从表演人类学的角度探讨小说中出现的“手”,“衰老的身体”与“身体——最小的场所”三个具身表征以理解和审视二战后愈加虚幻的真实世界下,现代人作为阈限空间的迷失者与疏离者,揭示其内心更加真实的身体体验和情感体验。

As the smallest space, the body reflects the emotional reality of modern people. Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Remains of the Day explores a six-day self-reflective trip by recollecting the old days of a British nobleman Stevens, the butler of Darlington House. The novel repeatedly refers to embodied metaphors about the body, and the question of the complex emotional space behind seems to be rarely studied. Therefore, this paper probes into Stevens’ emotional liminal space, discussing the three embodied representations of “hand”, “aging body” and “human body-the minimum place” in the novel from the perspective of the Anthropology of Performance to investigate the world after World War II where people live in the increasingly illusory reality. Through the loss and alienation of modern people in the liminal space, the article is aimed to reveal a more authentic physical and emotional experience of people’s inner world.