摘要:作为文学界的一颗新星，唐娜·塔特凭借在2014年新出版的小说《金翅雀》，荣膺当年的普利策文学奖。这部小说讲述了一位名叫西奥多的小男孩的成长之旅。西奥在一次恐怖分子策划的炸弹袭击中失去了他的母亲，慌乱逃跑中，他无意间将名画金翅雀一起带出了博物馆。带着这张画西奥在拉斯维加斯经历了人情冷暖，在纽约见识了尔虞我诈，在阿姆斯特丹险些丧命。此外，恐怖袭击造成的创伤也挥之不去。最终他在对美的追求和向往之中挣脱了桎梏，得到了救赎。 批评界对于塔特以及她的新书《金翅雀》有浓厚的兴趣。很多学者普遍从美学审美的角度来解读长篇小说。本文试图从小说的角度，将其与历史背景相结合，以图对这本小说做出一些新的解读。得益于克里斯蒂安对创伤的研究和许多中国学者对9/11小说的解读，本文试图将传统的袭击后创伤分析和美国对于文化他者的态度结合起来。本文意图展示出恐怖主义的罪恶，进一步指出在新时期美国的霸权也是一种国际恐怖主义的形式。以此来拓宽对于小说的界定。 本论文包含4个章节。第一章介绍研究的背景。第二章阐释恐怖袭击是如何美国人的生活并损害美国社会的。第三章提出美国的霸权主义也是一种恐怖主义。第四章总结全文并进一步指出人类内心的贪欲是恐怖主义的源泉。 关键词：《金翅雀》、 唐娜·塔特
Abstract:Donna Tartt, a rising star in the literary world, won the Pulitzer Prize for literature with her newly published book The Goldfinch in 2014. The book tells a story about the growth of Theodore, who has lost his mother in a terrorist attack. Having taken the painting The Goldfinch out of the museum by mistake, Theo has experienced isolation in Las Vegas, deception in New York and violence in Amsterdam. In addition, the trauma caused by the bomb attack bothers him and finally he finds salvation in the love of aesthetic beauty. Critics have paid attention to Tartt for a longtime and shown great interest in this new book. While most researchers tend to analyze from aesthetic perspective this novel, this thesis hopes to offer some new insights into the book as a 9/11 novel via its connection with the historical background. With the help of Kristiaan’s trauma study and many Chinese researchers’ observation on 9/11 novels, this thesis will try to combine the traditional trauma analysis and America’s attitude towards the cultural other together. It is my contention that this novel seeks to expose the dreadfulness of terrorism and point out that the American hegemony is another form of international terrorism, therefore broadening the scope of traditional 9/11 novel. This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter one introduces the background. Chapter two demonstrates how the terrorist attack has influenced the American people and destroyed their society. Chapter three argues that American hegemonism is a kind of terrorism. Chapter four summarizes the whole thesis and further explains that greed in human nature is the cause of all these forms of terrorism. Key words: The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
On one hand, The Goldfinch has revealed the damage terrorist can cause to individual citizens and the society as a whole. In general, the individual who has witnessed or survived the attack is likely to trap himself in the state of “melancholy” and numbness. Besides he also suffers from a sense of guilt and wants to return to the past. Theo’s life has changed thoroughly after surviving the bomb attack. He loses interest in everything and blames himself for his mother’s death. At the same time, Theo slips into the fantasy of changing the past. When this indifference is firmly lodged in the public consciousness, the relationship between individuals and religion and between individuals and the government is undermined. The seed of doubt and distrust has been sowed and the structure of American society is shaken. Having been treated badly by the American government, Theo can only feel disappointment and delusion in his heart. He becomes afraid of the nation and starts to run away from its administrations. Having lost his faith in the God, Theo has nothing to hold onto in the face of the terrorist attack. Consequently, he seeks comfort in drugs and becomes a drug addict. On the other hand, The Goldfinch serves to expose American hegemony as a new form of terrorism. American Hegemony taking the form of the central values has marginalized the ethnic groups, who also dissuade themselves from integrating into the local community. The ethnic groups become potential terrorists, rather than marginalized groups. America has built the wall of “nativism” (Wang, 2016, p. 41) and the policy of Multiculturalism has been shield away. The ethnic groups live near the margin of the society in the novel. Boris does not have friends in Las Vegas because his father is a Ukrainian miner. The friendly Goldie can only be a guard because he is a Puerto Rican. The American multicultural policy is futile, which can find expression in Theo’s indifference to the civic lesson and Boris’s drawing daggers on the exercise book. To carry out their new and conservative principle, the America government employs democracy as the excuse for everything. They deny the right of privacy endowed by the God for the sake of national security and treat their citizens as suspects. Theo in the novel is treated like a criminal rather than a witness of the bomb attack in the museum. He is even forced to attend a meeting held by the policemen and answer their ridiculous question. Americans intrude into private space at home and wage wars in outlands. Just as Boris has observed in the novel, “Americans just persecute smaller countries that believe different from them.” (Tartt, 2013, p. 311) Greed underlies the main plot of the novel. Out of greed, the terrorists launch the bomb attack in the museum which claims Theo’s mother’s life; out of greed, Theo keeps the famous painting along his journey rather than handles it to the specialists of the government; out of greed, Boris steals the painting from Theo and loses it finally; out of greed, Theo’s father returns to take Theo to Las Vegas and after knowing that he is not able to withdraw the money, he died during his escape…Greed fuels terrorism of both America government and the terrorists. The 9/11 strike is like a black spot on the calendar of human history, always reminding us of the disaster that day and the bloodshed in the later years. Likewise, greed is a rusty nail in our heart. The rust corrodes our mind, making it cruel and unsatisfied. As a result, we become unscrupulous and even find excuse for our own terrorism. Too long has greed corrupted human mind. Too many disasters has this corruption contributed to. Time is ripe for us to face directly with our greed and pull out this rusty nail. Only in this way can terrorism truly be eliminated. In addition, since the previous research on 9/11 novel mainly focuses on trauma or the culture other only, combining the two together to discussing greed may broaden the scope of traditional 9/11 novel. In the novel, Tartt exposes the trauma caused by the attack via describing Theo’s mental state after his survival. Terror and guilt filled him and they nearly destroyed his whole life. Rather than only sticking to the change of Theo’s mind like most novels, Tartt creates for Theo a Ukrainian friend, Boris, who serves to provide a point of view of the other. In this way, Tartt avoid falling into patriotic narrative and offers a new way of writing 9/11 novel. |
