塞丝的精神康复之旅——精神分析视域下《宠儿》的解读

Sethe’s Journey of Psychic Recovery: Interpretation of Beloved from the Perspective of Psychoanalysis

在精神分析的讨论中,自我意识、无法被象征化的创伤性点位以及丧失的客体一直是其理论关注的重点。本文旨在从这三个方面出发,对小说中塞丝和宠儿的复杂关系进行一次精神分析意义上的解读,试图探究塞丝的精神机制以及宠儿对她的造成的影响。首先,本文认为塞丝自我意识的高峰产生于宠儿的死亡。其次,塞丝被成为鬼魂的宠儿袭扰,从理论上来说,宠儿在象征界之中的账单并没有被还清,因此以一种活死人的方式回归。再次,小说的最后可以被视作塞丝完成了对于丧失客体的哀悼,这也使得她得以挣脱过去投入未来的生活。因此,整本小说也可以被视作塞丝精神的康复之旅。

The discussion of self-consciousness, traumas that cannot be symbolized, and lost object has al-ways been central to psychoanalytic theory. This article aims to interpret the relationship be-tween Sethe and Beloved from these three aspects and to explore Sethe’s psychic mechanism and Beloved’s traumatic impact on her. It also attempts to discuss how Sethe’s personal psychic liberation stands as a sign for the liberation of the enslaved African Americans. Generally speaking, Sethe’s journey goes through three important events: escaping from “Sweet Home”, killing her own daughter, and finally facing the ghostly return of Beloved, then completing her spiritual salvation. The article will also take these events as keys to further the textual exploration. Firstly, the peak of Sethe’s self-awareness is born out of Beloved’s death, which marks a break between her and her past as a slave. Secondly, Sethe is haunted by the ghostly Beloved, and in a sense, Beloved returns in a traumatizing way as a real event that cannot be symbolized. Again, the end of the novel can be seen as Sethe’s completion of the mourning for the object loss, which also allows her to break free from the past and invest more into the future. As an individual, her spiritual journey also brings hope and enlightenment to the entire African-American community.