外国文学研究 ›› 2020, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (5): 100-113.

• 文学伦理学批评 • 上一篇    下一篇

《冤家,一个爱情故事》中的记忆书写与身份重构

刘兮颖   

  • 出版日期:2020-10-25 发布日期:2021-02-26
  • 作者简介:刘兮颖,华中师范大学文学院教授,华中师范大学国际文学伦理学批评研究中心研究员,主要从事欧美文学研究。
  • 基金资助:
    国家社科基金一般项目“20世纪美国犹太文学中的记忆书写研究”(16BWW063)

Memory Writing and Identity Reconstruction in Enemies: A Love Story

Liu Xiying   

  • Online:2020-10-25 Published:2021-02-26
  • About author:Liu Xiying is a professor at the School of Literature and a research fellow at the International Research Center of Ethical Literary Criticism, Central China Normal University (Wuhan 430079, China). She specializes in the study of European and American literature. Email: longlongw@126.com
  • Supported by:
    A Research on Memory Narrative in the 20th Century Jewish American Literature” (16BWW063) sponsored by National Social Science Fund of China

内容摘要: 诺贝尔文学奖得主、美国犹太作家艾萨克·辛格在其代表作《冤家,一个爱情故事》中展现了作为幸存者且彼此之间有着复杂伦理关系的四位人物的各种记忆及其身份重构的过程。赫尔曼的嗅觉记忆固化了他作为雅德维珈的丈夫及保护人的身份,而与塔玛拉及子女同生共死记忆的缺失使得他规避了自己的父亲身份,历史记忆的融合则让他选择成为永远的受难者四处漂泊;塔玛拉的身体记忆使得她固化了自己的母亲身份,并最终作为书店老板完成了美国化的进程且成为犹太民族未来的守护者;雅德维珈作为嗅觉记忆的载体经历了女佣—妻子—单亲母亲的苦难生涯,由非犹太人转变成犹太教教徒;玛莎的创伤记忆令她受尽折磨,她经历了由难民到婚外情人再成为死者的身份转换过程。这些幸存者们在与他人共同建构伦理关系的过程中形成了家庭记忆,并将个体记忆、家庭记忆纳入漫长的历史记忆中,最终重新建构起他们的身份。

关键词: 艾萨克·辛格, 《冤家, 一个爱情故事》, 记忆书写, 身份重构

Abstract: In his representative work, Enemies: A Love Story, Isaac Singer, the Jewish American writer and the Nobel Prize winner, represents the various memories of and the attempts at the reconstruction of identity by four characters, who are the survivors with complicated ethical relations between each other. Herman's olfactory memory solidifies his identity as Yadwiga's husband and guardian. The loss of his memory about living through thick and thin together with Tamara and their children helps him evade his role as a father. The fusion of his memories about history, though, lets him choose to be an eternal sufferer wandering all over the place. Tamara's body memory consolidates her own identity as a mother and enables her to become Americanized as a bookshop owner and a protector for the future of the Jewish community. Yadwiga, as a carrier of olfactory memory, goes through an agonizing life with changing identities, from a maid to a wife and then to a single mother, and from a non-Jewish woman to a believer in Judaism. Masha's traumatic memory puts her through a lot of torments, changing her identity from a refugee to an extramarital lover and, finally, a dead person. These survivors form their family memory while trying to construct ethical relations with other people and integrate their individual memory and family memory into their long history memory, thus reconstructing their identities eventually.

Key words: Isaac Singer, Enemies: A Love Story, memory writing, identity reconstruction

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