Abstract:

The literary critics have been concerned with the content and narrative structures of In America. Some speak highly of its original narrative strategies, while others condemn its shallow content and too many repetitions of the historical materials. However, few of them interpret the novel by combining its content with its structure. The author of this paper notices that the novel’s narrative strategies have some tacit correspondences with the characters’ power of discourse: the third-person viewpoint reveals the realities objectively that the heroine, Maryna, is oppressed by both the man-centered discourse and the American mainstream discourse; while the letters and the diaries indicate Maryna’s requests and longing for voicing; and the direct speeches and the lines show Maryna’s freedom of speaking. So to speak, the narrative text is a carnival platform for the discourse: the oppression and the subversion of the discursive power continuously fight against each other. Sontag retells the story by rearranging its content and narrative structure to deconstruct the authority of the mainstream discourse, showing her personal thinking and concerning for the minority female’s power of discourse. This paper attempts to analyze the oppression, subversion and reconstruction of the heroine’s power of discourse by interpreting the discursive intentions embodied in so many narrative strategies through the perspective of narrative ethics , hoping to reveal Sontag’s implied ethical consciousness and appealing through the varied narrative strategies, and thus presenting her concerning on the social reality, profound humanistic feelings towards human beings and her thinking of the social orders.

Keywords: the narrative ethics; In America; the power of discourse; Susan Santag; American literature

摘要：

《在美国》这部小说的内容和叙述形式成为评论界争论的焦点,有人赞叹其叙事手法新颖,亦有人批驳其内容单薄且与史料重合过多,然鲜有人将其形式和内容结合起来进行探讨。笔者发现小说的叙事策略与故事中人物的话语权有某种暗合：第三人称叙事客观呈现女主人公玛琳娜身受男权话语和美国主流话语压制的现实;而书信和日记等则流露出玛琳娜言说的欲望与渴求;直接引语和剧本台词折射出玛琳娜言说的自由。可以说,此故事文本就像是一个话语的狂欢场,话语权的压制与反抗进行着激烈的较量。桑塔格对历史故事进行重塑时进行了内容和技巧的双重安排,以此来消解主流话语的权威,呈现其对少数族裔女性话语权的思考。本文拟从叙事伦理的视角,通过解读故事中多样的叙事手法所传递的话语意识,来剖析主人公玛琳娜话语权受压制、颠覆以及重构的过程,以期揭示桑塔格多样的叙事技巧背后隐藏的伦理意识与诉求,进而展示她对社会现实的关注、对芸芸众生的人文关怀以及对社会秩序的思考。

关键词: 叙事伦理, 《在美国》, 话语权, 苏珊•桑塔格, 美国文学