（英语语言文学专业论文）梦魇——《使女的故事》的反乌托邦主题研究.pdf

vi 摘 要 摘 要 玛格丽特阿特伍德（1939- ） ，是加拿大当代德高望重的女性作家，被称作加拿 大文学女皇。 她的作品关注同时期的一些问题，诸如女性主义，生态关注，以及加拿 大与加拿大文学的命运。她的小说使女的故事 ，延用 20 世纪的反乌托邦传统。 使 女的故事中的很多细节在现实生活中都有相应的典型，有历史上曾经发生过的，或是 现今社会正在发生的。夸大和放大现实的社会问题是反乌托邦作家的一个手段，以此来 连接现实社会与虚构社会。同时，这也是作家加强小说道德教化的一种方法。正是基于 它的社会现实意义，这部小说受到了广泛的欢迎。本文试图分析小说中所体现的三个主 题：极权统治的体现与危害，女性所承受的痛苦以及作家对生态方面的关注。 文章主体分为四部分。 在引言部分， 本文介绍了反乌托邦文学的特点以及现实意义， 继而介绍了使女的故事继承的反乌托邦传统，以及这部小说的现实意义。 使女的故事继承了反乌托邦文学中描述极权主义的传统，描述了一个阴森恐怖 的社会图景。玛格丽特阿特伍德结合美国历史上的清教主义和 20 世纪的德国纳粹统 治以及苏联斯大林的大清洗运动，为读者塑造了一个后美国时代的基列神权统治国家。 文章的第一章试图去用福柯的权力微观物理学理论以及他的权力话语理论来分析 基列的独裁统治，从而证明这部小说在这方面的现实意义。 使女的故事被称为女性主义的1984 。对两性关系的思考是这部小说最大的一 个主题。通过使女们的悲惨遭遇，阿特伍德强有力地批评了男权统治社会，同时借助小 说，也表述了她与激进的女权主义者的不同看法。文章的第二章主要分析了基列统治下 女性的地位问题，以及由此导致的男女关系以及女人和女人之间的关系问题，从而分析 这一主题的现实意义。 小说的另一主题则为生态关注。基列国的形成，其主要根源就是生态环境的日益恶 化，导致当时的社会已不适宜人类居住，人类面临不能繁衍社会而遭灭亡的危险。小说 中的很多例子都是有现实依据的，正是基于此，小说的生态主题才显得异常的突出，为 人类社会敲响了警钟。 借助反乌托邦这一文学传统，从现有的一些事实出发进行延伸，为读者勾勒了一个 地地道道的梦魇。警示是这部小说最大的现实意义。 关键词：反乌托邦、极权主义统治、女性的悲惨遭遇、生态关注、玛格丽特阿特伍德 iv abstract margaret atwood (1939- ), a prestigious contemporary canadian woman writer, is regarded as the “queen” of canadian literature. her writing deals with contemporary issues, such as feminism, sexual politics, the fate of canada and canadian literature, and the intrusive nature of mass society. her novel, the handmaids tale, falls squarely within the twentieth-century tradition of anti-utopian or “dystopian” novels. the details in the handmaids tale have their own relevant archetypes in the real society, which maybe happened in the history, or maybe the current society is undertaking. exaggerating and amplifying the real social problems is a means for the dystopian writers to connect the real society and the fantasy world. meanwhile it is this method that the writers utilize to strengthen the function of implying the society and moralizing and educating. due to the realistic meaning, this novel has received great popularity. this thesis attempts to analyze the three themes represented in this novel: the totalitarian ruling, womens suffering and the ecological concern. the body of this thesis consists of four parts. the first part is the introduction, which focuses the features of dystopian literature and its realistic significance, then the reflection of this tradition on the novel, the handmaids tale, as well as the realistic meaning of this novel. the handmaids tale inherits the tradition of dystopian literatures presenting totalitarianism, depicting a panorama of dark, horrible society. combining with puritanism in american history, the german nazi ruling and great purge in stalinist soviet union in the 20th century, margaret atwood shows the readers a post-us gileadean theocratic ruling country. chapter one of this thesis tries to use michel foucaults supposition of microphysics theory of power, as well as his powerlanguage theory to analyze the totalitarian ruling in gilead, thus to prove the realistic significance in this aspect. the handmaids tale is called feminist 1984. the reflection of gender relationship is the biggest theme in this novel. through depicting the suffering of handmaids, atwood powerfully criticizes the patriarchal society. meanwhile, through the novel, she presents her v different idea from the radical feminists. chapter two of this thesis mainly analyzes the issue of womens status in gileadean ruling, as well as the relationships between men and women, between women and women, and then analyzes the social meaning of this theme. another theme of this novel is the ecological concern. the deep root of the founding of gilead republic is the deterioration of the environment, which causes the current society unlivable for human beings, makes human beings face the danger of extinction. many examples in the novel are on the basis of reality. due to this, the ecological theme of the novel becomes very striking, tolling the alarming bell for the whole society. using the tradition of dystopian literature, basing on realistic elements and then prolonging it, atwood shows the readers a genuine nightmare. warning is the striking realistic significance of this novel. key words: dystopia, totalitarian ruling, womens suffering, ecological concern, margaret atwood iii 学位论文原创性声明 学位论文原创性声明 本人所提交的学位论文 nightmareon the dystopian themes in the handmaids tale，是在导师的指导下，独立进行研究工作所取得的原创性成果。除文中已经注明用 的内容外，本论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本文的 研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中标明。 本声明的法律后果由本人承担。 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师确认（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书 学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解河北师范大学有权保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交学 位论文的复印件和磁盘，允许论文被查阅和借阅。本人授权河北师范大学可以将学位论 文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或其它复制手段保 存、汇编学位论文。 （保密的学位论文在 年解密后适用本授权书） 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 1 introduction margaret atwood was born in ottawa, ontario, on november 18, 1939. as a “queen” of canadian literature, margaret atwood has a very high international fame for her great contribution to english literature in novels, poetry, short stories and literary review. among her works are novels such as the edible woman (1969), surfacing (1972), bodily harm (1981), the handmaids tale (1986), the robber bride (1993), alias grace (1996), the blind assassin (2000; booker prize), oryx and crake (2003), and the penelopiad (2005). her best-known novel, the handmaids tale(1986), is set in a mid-21st-century american dystopia ruled by religious extremists. her short-story collections include dancing girls (1983), bluebeards eggs(1993), and moral disorder(2006). she has also written several volumes of poetry, including the circle game(1965), power politics(1970), and true stories(1981), and numerous essays. she is also a recipient of many literary awards, such as the booker, canadas governor generals award and the commonwealth literary prize. atwood is a skilled and powerful storyteller whose novels have sometimes made use of such popular genres as the historical novel, detective tale, and science fiction. most of her fiction has been translated into several foreign languages. a new atwood novel becomes a canadian, american and international best-seller immediately (only robert davies, among canadian writers, has a comparable international public). her novels are also taught in schools and colleges all over the world on a wide range of courses: english literature, canadian and postcolonial literature, american literature (in the united states, where atwood is a “north american” or sometimes an “american writer), as well as womens studies, gender studies, and science fiction courses. there is a margaret atwood society, a margaret atwood newsletter, and ever-increasing number of scholars studying and teachers teaching her work in womens studies courses as well as north american literature courses worldwide. in academic quarters, atwood is one of the most frequently studied writers at the university level. graham huggan offers several explanations for atwoods remarkable success: first and 2 foremost, hard work and productivity; her ability to function as a spokesperson on a wide range of topics both literary and political; the multiplication of her public roles as writer, feminist, environmentalist, nationalist, the “soundbite quality of many of her public utterances” and the “epigrammatic witticisms” found in her writing (in a word, she is media-friendly); and her launching of subversive attacks on social mores from the position of the middle class.1 her writing treats contemporary issues, such as feminism, sexual politics, the fate of canada and canadian literature, and the intrusive nature of mass society. to be sure, atwoods portrayal of gilead is recognizable by readers aware of “the backlash of the 1980s”.2 she wrote the handmaids tale in west berlin and alabama in the mid-1980s, shortly after the elections of ronald reagan in the united states and margaret thatcher in great britain, during a period of conservative revival in the west partly fueled by a strong, well-organized movement of religious conservatives who criticized what they perceived as the excesses of the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s. with elements from the new right and christian fundamentalism conjoined with deformed and distorted feminist formations, mass-mediated consumption, and the military-industrial complex, a variant of “friendly fascism comes alive on the page”.3 the growing power of this “religious right” heightened feminist fears that the gains women had made in previous decades would be reversed. the novel, published in 1986, quickly became a best-seller. the handmaids tale won the 1985 governor generals award and the first arthur c. clarke award in 1987, and it was nominated for the 1986 nebula award, the 1986 booker prize, and the 1987 prometheus award. the setting of the novel is the republic of gilead, a state which has replaced the united states of america. by assassinating the president and members of congress, a group of religious extremists launched a coup dtat and founded a totalitarian and theocratic statethe republic of gilead. due to chemical contamination and nuclear radiation, most of the people become sterile and the state faces its extinction. thus, those women who break the law in gilead and those who still have the ability to bear children were chosen, through brainwash, to serve as handmaids in the commanders houses as tools of bearing children for 3 the commanders. the protagonist offred is one of those handmaids. through offreds narration, the novel presents us a dystopian nightmare. the handmaids tale falls squarely within the twentieth-century tradition of anti-utopian, or “dystopian” novels, exemplified by classics like aldous huxleys brave new world and george orwells 1984. novels in this genre present imagined worlds and societies that are not ideals, but instead are terrifying or restrictive. in order to explain this literature genre better, another conceptionutopia, should be explained first, for the dystopian works belong to the category of utopian literature. utopia is a name which is taken from of the best state of a republic, and of the new island utopia, a book written in 1516 by sir thomas more describing a fictional island in the atlantic ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system. the earliest utopian work could be dated back to republic which was written by plato; while thomas mores utopia is the real laying-foundation work of utopian literature. utopia refers to a place, state, or condition that is really perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs and conditions. the term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempted to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. generally, utopia has come to mean an ideal society, with everything perfectly arranged, a “heaven on earth”. utopian literature is a generic term for the works that describe the imaginary societies which intend to create ideal conditions for human beings, eliminating hatred, pain, neglect, and all of the other evils of the world. they always include the criticism towards the current reality. but, in the 1920s, just before brave new world was written, a number of bitterly satirical novels were written to describe the horrors of a planned or totalitarian society. the societies they describe are generally called “dystopias”. it is a branch newly born in the 20th century in european and american literature. it is a truism that one of the most revealing indexes to the anxieties of our age is the great flood of works like zamyatins we, huxleys brave new world, and orwells nineteen eighty-four. appalling in their similarity, they describe nightmare states “where men are conditioned to obedience, freedom is eliminated, and individuality crushed; where the past is systematically destroyed and men are isolated from nature; where science and technology are 4 employed, not to enrich human life, but to maintain the states surveillance and control of its slave citizens”.4 here, dystopia refers to a futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral of totalitarian control. dystopias, though an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about current trend, societal norm, or political system. perhaps the primary function of a dystopia is to send out danger signals to its readers: “ many dystopias are self-consciously warnings. a warning implies that choice, and therefore hope, are still possible.”5 in the “preface” to scraps of the untainted sky, tom moylan points out, “dystopian narrative is largely the product of the terrors of the twentieth century. a hundred years of exploitation, repression, state violence, war, genocide, disease, famine, ecocide, depression, debt, and the steady depletion of humanity through the buying and selling of everyday life provide more than enough fertile ground for this fictive underside of the utopian imagination.”6although its roots lie in menippean satire, realism, and the anti-utopian novels of the nineteenth century, the dystopia emerged as a literary form in its own right in the early 1900s, as capital entered a new phase with the onset of monopolized production and as the modern imperialist state extended its internal and external reach. in fact, the flourishing of the 20th centurys dystopian works is closely related to the temporal cultural and economic conditions. from the very beginning of the 20th century, within fifty years, great britain had undertaken the first world war, the great depression, the second world war as well as the cold war. the unceasing wars and disasters made the beautiful future expectation of the people become a disillusionment. the totalitarian ruling of nazi germany and stalinist soviet union set the alarm bells ring for the people who pursued freedom and democracy. meanwhile, with the development of science and technology, the influence of the industrial revolution was increasing, tvs, computers, nuclear weapons as well as information technology totally changed the shape of the world. the increasing sense of environmental protection and the worrying towards future made many writers realize that the world had totally changed. people began to pay more attention to the negative effects of the improvement of science and technology as well as the evil side of humanity. the long 5 period of pursuit towards an ideal society transformed into the extreme disappointment and dissatisfaction towards the real society. under these circumstances, dystopian narratives began to develop, and in this period a lot of such works appear. the dystopian literature is differentiated from other utopian works by describing a somber and horrible future society. if we say that utopian works describe a beautiful scene, then dystopian works present us terrible nightmares. the dystopian works extend the evil in the real society and then construct an imaginary society, warning the people in the modern society by their possible evil consequences. warning is the real purport of this kind of literature. the three representative writers of dystopian fictions are eugene zamyatin, aldous huxley and george orwell, whose best-known works are we, brave new world and 1984. all the three novels present us with societies of utopian mold turning into horrible nightmares. with the likes of zamyatin, orwell, and atwood, dystopian interrogation begins to sharpen as the modern state apparatus (in the stalinist soviet union, nazi germany, social democratic welfare states, and right-wing oligarchies) is isolated as a primary engine of alienation and suffering. gradually, dystopias critical sensibility is taken up by authors who look beyond technology and the authoritarian state and turn to the especial imbrications of the economy and culture that capitalism has achieved at the cost of diminishing the complexity and potential of all humanity and the earth itself. in the pages of popular sf the dystopian imagination “seeps into the nooks and crannies of everyday life to expose the depredations produced by the strongest socioeconomic force of the century”.7 to conceive a peculiar society is one of the responsibilities of dystopian writers. in order to make their picture genuine and believable, they make their effort to construct a big connection between fiction and reality through the factors(especially the negative factors) of real society. most of the early utopian works describe “the new worlds” very similar to a paradise, a world heaven, while dystopian writers always base themselves on the real society, through putting the time ahead of its society, construct their own time and space. from this sense, dystopian works pay more attention on disclosing the real social problems, thus have more realistic significance. dystopian society has a list of characteristics: propaganda is used to 6 control the citizens of society, information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted; a figurehead or concept is worshipped by the society; citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance; citizens have a fear of the outside world; citizens live in a dehumanized state; the natural world is banished and distrusted; citizens conform to uniform expectations; individuality and dissent are bad; the society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world. in a dystopian novel, the protagonist often feels trapped and is struggling to escape; he or she questions the existing social and political systems; he or she believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which he or she lives; he or she helps the audience recognize the