（英语语言文学专业论文）揭示人性污点呼唤人间真情：——论《人性的污点》中的伦理思想.pdf

iii 揭示人性污点，呼唤人间真情 论人性的污点中的伦理思想 揭示人性污点，呼唤人间真情 论人性的污点中的伦理思想 研究生：覃双眉 年级：2005 级 学科专业：英语语言文学 指导老师：张叔宁教授 研究方向：英美文学 中 文 摘 要 菲利普罗斯是最著名也是最多产的美国当代作家之一。自 1959 年至今他的 28 部作 品使他几乎囊括了美国所有重要的文学奖项, 包括普利策小说奖。2001 年，罗斯被时代 杂志评选为“美国最佳小说家”。在国外，罗斯的作品一直备受关注，并且在上个世纪 90 年代开始形成了一股罗斯研究热潮。国内学界在近几年也开始对其作品给予更多关注，但 与国外罗斯研究相比，国内对他这样一位重要作家的重视还不够。已有的罗斯研究主要关 注其作品的身份及种族问题、历史政治对个人的影响，以及两代人之间的冲突等，国内外 鲜有发现从伦理学视角研究罗斯作品。本论文试图从伦理角度、用文学伦理学批评方法探 索人性的污点中罗斯对人性的刻画，寻找作家在该作品中体现的伦理思想。 论文共分为四章。 第一章是论文的引言部分。该章简单介绍罗斯生平、作品，以及罗斯作品与人性的 污点的研究现状，提出该论文旨在用文学伦理学批评方法探索人性的污点中的伦理 思想。 第二章介绍聂珍钊教授等中国学者所倡导的文学伦理学批评的主要观点及罗斯主要作 品中的伦理思想。 第三章是论文的主体部分。该章尝试从伦理学视角分析人性的污点 。首先，从“幽 灵事件”、 桃色事件及莱斯的痛苦生活分析作品中表现的当代美国社会中的一些伦理及政治 现象，包括政治正确性的虚伪、虚伪的道德观及政治活动背后的利益驱动等。其次，从主 人公科尔曼由黑人转换为犹太人身份这一现象分析罗斯的伦理思想：既肯定科尔曼对民族 不平等的反抗，又谴责他的自私自利。最后，从科尔曼与三个女人的婚恋关系及与父母、 子女的关系探讨罗斯的婚恋家庭伦理观：谴责婚恋家庭关系中的利已主义行为，赞扬无私 纯洁的爱，渴望理解、宽容。 第四章为论文的结论部分。本论文认为罗斯在作品中揭露了当代美国社会中的种种阴 暗面，揭示了人性中的利己本性，表达了他对自由、平等、公正、充满理解与爱的人类社 会的渴望。 关键词关键词：菲利普罗斯；伦理思想；文学伦理学批评； 人性的污点 iv a call for love in revealing the human stain: on the ethical ideas in the human stain postgraduate: qin shuangmei grade: 2005 major field of study: english language ethical ideas; ethical literary criticism; the human stain 论文独创性声明论文独创性声明 本人郑重声明： 所提交的学位论文是本人在导师的指导下进行的 研究工作及取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不含 其他个人或其他机构已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本文的研究作 出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。本人承担本 声明的法律责任。 研究生签名： 日期： 论文使用授权声明论文使用授权声明 本人完全了解广西师范大学有关保留、 使用学位论文的规定。 广 西师范大学、中国科学技术信息研究所、清华大学论文合作部，有权 保留本人所送交学位论文的复印件和电子文档，可以采用影印、缩印 或其他复制手段保存论文。本人电子文档的内容和纸质论文的内容相 一致。除在保密期内的保密论文外，允许论文被查阅和借阅，可以公 布（包括刊登）论文的全部或部分内容。论文的公布（包括刊登）授 权广西师范大学学位办办理。 研究生签名： 日期： 导 师签名： 日期： ii acknowledgements first and foremost, my most sincere thanks go to my supervisor, prof. zhang shuning for his constant encouragement and invaluable suggestions in these three years of graduate study. without his kind and painstaking guidance over the choice of the subject, the overall design and the drafting of the thesis, it is impossible for me to finish my research. i am heartily grateful to prof. liu yuhong, prof. lu xiaohong, prof. bai jingze and all the other professors of college of foreign studies of guangxi normal university for their insightful lectures at the first stage of my study. my special thanks go to prof. liu yuhong and prof. xujiwang for their helpful suggestions in the drafting of the thesis. i also owe my thanks to my classmates and friends liu jun, zhao li, zhao suhua, su huihui, and zhong hui for their suggestions from which i have also benefited a lot. i also want to acknowledge my thanks to the librarians of guangxi normal university library, for their kind assistance in my research. i owe my special thanks to my husband deng ganran, my son deng wenhan, my mother and my parents-in-law for their persistent love and support throughout the time. 1 chapter 1 introduction 1.1 philip roth and his major works both in the united states and internationally, philip milton roth is respected as one of the most important writers of modern times. he was born in newark, new jersey in 1933, belonging to the third generation of jewish americans. his grandparents were among the european jews who joined the nineteenth-century wave of immigration to the united states. he grew up in the citys lower-middle-class section of weequahic and was educated in newark public schools. he later attended bucknell university, where he received his b.a., and the university of chicago, where he completed his m.a. and taught english. afterwards, he taught creative writing at both iowa and princeton, and for many years he taught comparative literature at the university of pennsylvania. he retired from teaching in 1992. he has written 28 books and some uncollected stories, essays and reviews. his intelligent stories explore how individuals face the tensions of family, politics, sex and race. his first book, the short-story collection goodbye, columbus and five short stories (1959), which uses wit, irony and humor to depict jewish life in post-war america, won him critical recognitionnational book award for fiction in 1960and condemnation from some within the jewish community for depicting what they saw as the unflattering side of jews. for instance, one of the stories, “defender of the faith”, is about a young jewish soldier training at an american army base at the end of world war , who lies to his jewish army officer in order to get special treatment. these stories and the novels letting go (1962) and when she was good (1967) are realistic in mode and adopt a traditional narrative method. his comic novel portnoys complaint (1969) marked a turn in his career that made him wealthy, famous, or notorious and still more controversial. it depicts a middle-class new york jewish world in the portrait of alexander portnoy, whose possessive mother makes him so guiltily insecure that he can seek relief only in elaborate masturbation and sex with forbidden gentile girls. irving howe, the eminent jewish-american critic, famously claimed: “the cruelest thing anyone can do with portnoys complaint is to read it twice” (howe, 1986: 82), and regarded it as a vulgar book. in his next several works, roth experimented with different comic modes, as illustrated in the works our gang (1971), a strong political satire aimed at richard nixon; the breast (1972), a kafkaesque rendering of sexual desire (and in the professor of desire (1977), the same protagonist struggles between the attractions of his private lusts and the morality and seriousness manifested in his profession); the great american novel (1973), a wild satire of both frank norriss novelistic quest and the great american pastime, baseball. then roth began to create a series of fictions which are highly self-reflexive and postmodern. my life as a man (1974) treats 2 the possibility of dealing with the personal pain of a failed marriage through teaching literature and writing, analyzing the importance of personal experience to a writer of fiction. and in zuckerman bound, the zuckerman trilogy which includes the ghost writer (1979), zuckerman unbound(1981), the anatomy lesson (1983) and a novella epilogue, “the prague orgy” (1985), roths alter ego nathan zuckerman first appears and roth explores the distance between the ideals of rigorous ethnic, familial, and literary traditions and the realities of contemporary life. then zuckerman appears again in the counterlife (1987), an international novel set in the united states, israel, switzerland, and great britain. his next four booksthe facts (1988), deception (1990), patrimony (1991), and operation shylock(1993)explore the relationship between the lived world and the written world, between “fact” and “fiction”. through his protagonist in these works, also named philip roth, the author questions the genres of autobiography and fiction, and he mischievously encourages the reader to become caught up in this literary game. roths next novel sabbaths theatre (1995) is a novel of sexual obsession. in his next three novels, american pastoral (1997), i married a communist (1998), and the human stain (2000), which are called his “american trilogy”, roth once again sets nathan zuckerman as the narrator to reflect on key moments in late twentieth-century american experience, revealing the social, political, and psychological conflicts that define post-war america. the dying animal (2001) is about males sexual desire and fear of death. in the plot against america (2004), roth imagines what would happen to american jews if the fascist charles lindbergh had won the election over franklin delano roosevelt in 1940. the novel, which focuses on the ways in which history is constructed, appears to continue the authors exploration of american identities, national as well as individual. the protagonist of everyman (2006) is an anonymous “everyman”, who feels the effects of the decaying body and where it ultimately leads. in his latest work, exit ghost (2007), roth offers what he claims will be the final chapter in the zuckerman saga. in the work, he revisits many of the same characters and themes that figure in his first zuckerman novel, the ghost writer (see brief biography and awards, 2007). these books have made a great fortune for roth. portnoys complaint was new york times number one best seller for the year 1969 when it was published, and his other books also sell well. apart from that, these works are highly regarded by many literary critics. roth is regarded as an american novelist who gets better with age. derek parker royal believes: “unlike many aging novelists, whose productive qualities wane over time, roth has demonstrated a unique ability not only to sustain his literary output but even to surpass the scope and talent inherent in his previous writings” (royal, 2005: 2). his woks have garnered every major american literary honor including pulitzer prize for fiction for american pastoral in 1997, national book award 3 (twice) for fiction for goodbye, columbus and five short stories in 1960 and sabbaths theater in 1995. and he has won time magazines best american novel of the year for operation shylock in 1994, and time magazines best american novelist in 2001. and other main awards are: national book critics circle award (twice), pen/faulkner award for fiction (thrice), pen/nabokov award, pen/bellow award, national medal of arts, among other recognitions. the distinguished literary critic harold bloom has included more of roths novels (six) in his western canon than of any other living american author, and beginning in 2005, roth joined saul bellow and eudora welty and became the third living american author to have his works collected by the library of america. “when roth was honored with the national book foundation medal for distinguished contribution to ameircan letters in 2002, his place as a major american author was one that no serious critic would be willing to dispute” (parrish, 2007: 1). roth receives recognition outside america too. he has won two times of w. h. smith award in the united kingdom for the human stain in 2000 and the plot against america in 2004, and the prix medici for the best book of the year in france for the human stain in 2000. 1.2 an introduction to the human stain the human stain (2000) is the last volume of roths american trilogy, the other two of which are american pastoral (1997) and i married a communist (1998). roth has called these three novels “a thematic trilogy”. they all deal, he explains, with the “historical moments in postwar american life that have had the greatest impact on my generation”: the mccarthy era, the vietnam war, and 1998, the year of bill clintons impeachment (qtd. in safer, 2003). bill clintons impeachment is the background of the human stain. 1998 is the year when the 71-year-old protagonist, coleman silk, a former classics professor and faculty dean of athena college in new england, is accused of “sexually exploiting an abused, illiterate woman half your age” (roth, 2000: 38) because he is having an affair with a 34-year-old cleaning woman of the college. two years before, coleman has been forced to resign from the college because he has been accused of making a racist remark about two african-american students who have been absent from his class and whom he has never seen before. coleman thinks it ridiculous to be charged with racism because he himself is black and has passed for a jew since his youth. but he can not tell the truth to defend himself. two years after his resignation and his wifes death, he begins a love affair with faunia farley, the young cleaning woman. his love affair brings him an anonymous letter from his successor, the faculty dean delphine roux, his childrens coldness to him and faunias ex-husband lesley farleys hatred. lesley is a vietnam war veteran and anti-semitist, who has got a mental disease called “post-traumatic stress disorder” and is a great threat to them. however, coleman and faunia continue their love affair. in the end they are 4 killed in a car accident caused by lesley. the novel proves to be well-received both in america and internationally. after it was published in 2000, it won roth the w. h. smith award for best book of the year in the united kingdom and the prix medici for the best book of the year in france, and the second pen/faulkner award in 2001 in the united states. and it was made into a film of the same name in 2003 starring anthony hopkins and nicole kidman. 1.3 literature review and the significance of the study roths books have always received great concerns and passions not only from ordinary readers but also from literary critics. according to the web site “the philip roth society”, there have been 30 book-length studies and monographs, 3 special issues of journals, about 150 chapters from books, nearly 300 journal articles and about 50 dissertations dealing with roths works (see resources, 2007). and since 1990s, roth studies have become very hot. derek parker royal claims in 2005 that “roths work in the past fifteen years has also spawned what could be called a revitalization of roth studies within academia” (royal, 2005: 2). this is the time when roth created some of his most important novels, including his well-received american trilogy. the academia at home has also begun to pay more attention to his works in recent years. there have been 2 doctoral dissertations, 8 master theses, and more than 10 journal essays devoted to roth studies. but that is not enough for such an important writer, comparing to the roth studies abroad. many scholars have noticed roths deep concern about the human conditions of individual, community and society. elaine b. safer argues that with humor and comedy, “roth increasingly illuminates and mocks the public events of the age and the private obsessions of its denizens”, and “laughs at the hypocrisies and foibles of our time” (safer, 2006: 16). he points out that the decline of our society, the stupidity of our behavior, and ultimately, the essentially tragic elements of the human condition are visibly the underlying element of roth comedy. timothy parrish has found out that at the heart of roths fictions are such subjects as “intertwining personal and communal identities, sexual politics and practice, the postmodern world and the place of america in that world, self-invention in the context of human annihilation and acts of terror, and racial and cultural pluralism” (parrish, 2007: 3). and debra shostak points out that roth has explored deeply and repeatedly “such features of subjectivity as masculinity, embodiment, sexuality, ethnicity, the creative act, and the subjects embeddedness in history” (shostak, 2004: 3). much attention of roth studies has been paid to roths considerations about the identity of an individual in the society. some jewish readers of his early fiction accused him of exploiting 5 jewish-american culture in order to gain acceptance as an “american” author, but many critics see the jewish identity in his works differently. timothy parrish argues: “it is important to recognize, though, that roth understands himself as more than just the representative writer of a particular ethnic group roth is far more a novelist than he is a jew” (parrish, 2007: 2). and jay halio and ben siegel point out: “one major theme that runs through roths fiction and takes many forms is the nature of the self and the problems of self-worth or self-identity” (halio brett ashley kaplan argues that the novel tells us “because we are still obsessed by reading race we cannot overcome racism and anti-semitism in america” (kaplan, 2005: 173); while debra shostak explores “the self-betrayal that stems from an attempt to avert the betrayals of others” (shostak, 2004: 153) in the novel. but there are few studies devoted to exploring roths ethical ideas by analyzing his works from ethical perspective. in fact, roths works contain clear ethical ideas. his deep concern about the human conditions of the individual, community and society has shown his resistance to racial inequality and calling for justice in society, his longing for warmth in family relationship, and his yearning for sincerity in individual relationship. and the human stain contains all these ideas. this thesis is an attempt to explore roths the human stain from the perspective of ethics by using the methods of ethical literary criticism and textual analysis, trying to find out roths ethical ideas in it by analyzing the ethical phenomena in the work. for such an important contemporary american writer, the domestic research is far behind the international roth studies. in the thesis the author tries to introduce this great writer to chinese readers from a new perspective, and hoping it can do some help for the readers to better understand the human stain and philip roth. 6 chapter 2 ethical literary criticism and roths ethical ideas 2.1 ethical literary criticism as an approach to literary studies in june 2004, professor nie zhenzhao from central china normal university put forward an ethical approach in literary criticismethical literary criticismas a new methodology (nie zhenzhao, 2004: 169). he proposed for the first time to analyze literature with ethical methods. ethical literary criticism is a new approach to literary studies in contemporary era, but the discussion of the relationship between literature and ethics is not new. it has a long history both in china and in the west. chinese culture is one that attaches much importance to ethics and morality, and chinese traditional literature has paid much at