后人类的警示：《羚羊与秧鸡》中的语言哲学

外国文学研究 ›› 2018, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (3): 88-98.

后人类的警示：《羚羊与秧鸡》中的语言哲学

丁林棚

出版日期:2018-06-25 发布日期:2022-05-23
作者简介:丁林棚,北京大学外国语学院英语系副教授,主要研究方向为英语文学与文化理论。
基金资助:
2011年国家社科基金“加拿大文学中的民族性构建”（11BWW031）

A Posthumanist Admonition: Language Philosophy in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake

Ding Linpeng

Online:2018-06-25 Published:2022-05-23
About author:Ding Linpeng, Ph.D. in literature, is Associate Professor at the English Department, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University (Beijing 100871, China). His major research fields include Enligh literature and cultural studies. Email: dinglinpeng@pku.edu.cn
Supported by:
“The Construction of Canadianness in Canadian Literature” (11BWW031), sponsored by the National Social Science Fund of China

摘要/Abstract

内容摘要： 加拿大当代作家玛格丽特·阿特伍德在其小说《羚羊与秧鸡》中对后人类未来作出了描绘,通过聚焦人与非人的边界地带,探讨了语言对人性的决定性作用,为从语言哲学视角检视人性与文明本质提供了独特的文本基础。这部作品透过科幻故事的表象呈现出三个重要的深层语言哲学议题：小说首先凸显了语言和言语的双重属性,借用主人公的语言无能刻画出人与非人的语言临界状况;其次,通过详细描写新生人类的语言游戏暗指能指的不间断延异和对不在场的召唤和操控;第三,能指符号进一步指向符号象征体系和话语网络的建构,并最终指向艺术、人文等元素。这三个层次的思考对探索人性本质作出了深层、立体的尝试。《羚羊与秧鸡》所涉及的人类学、哲学和语言学思想为审视语言在人类主体构建中的作用以及对后人类状况进行理论管窥提供了不可或缺的思考素材。

关键词: 阿特伍德, 《羚羊与秧鸡》, 语言哲学, 人性, 后人类主义

Abstract: The paper elucidates the posthuman thought in Margaret Atwood's novel Oryx and Crake, and presents reflections on the essence of language and its interconnection to humanity. Focusing on the human/inhuman boundary, the novel provides insights into the nature of humanity and civilization. There emerge three major philosophical concerns in this speculative fiction. Calling attention to the dual properties of langue and parole as well as the status of “infancy” located between the human and the inhuman, the novel depicts Crakers' language games and alludes to the ceaseless chain of signifiers along with its perpetual différance and its manipulation of absence. In addition, it also investigates the interrelation between discursive network and its quintessential construction of humanity. Oryx and Crake thus serves as a site for hermeneutical reflection on the role of language in the formation of the human subject and humanity on the whole. A reading of the philosophy of language embodied in the novel, in connection with contemporary theories in anthropology, philosophy and linguistics, offers a few theoretical glimpses of the posthuman condition.

Key words: Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, language philosophy, humanity, posthumanism

丁林棚. 后人类的警示：《羚羊与秧鸡》中的语言哲学[J]. 外国文学研究, 2018, 40(3): 88-98.

Ding Linpeng. A Posthumanist Admonition: Language Philosophy in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2018, 40(3): 88-98.

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