（英语语言文学专业论文）《最蓝的眼睛》的喻指性分析.pdf

v 摘 要 摘 要 托妮莫里森是一位在文学领域做出过巨大贡献的非裔美国女作家，并于 1993 年被授予了诺贝尔文学奖。她的创作不仅受到西方文学传统的影响，同时 也植根于她作为一名黑人女性的切身体验。本文通过运用亨利路易盖茨的喻 指理论来分析她的处女作最蓝的眼睛的喻指性特征，旨在为莫里森的研 究提供一个新的批评视角。 盖茨的喻指理论在非裔美国文学作品中主要表现为对语言、 意象的喻指和对 文本的喻指。因此本论文分成了相应的三个章节来论证： 第一章分析了小说语言的喻指性特征。 本部分通过莫里森对黑人土语和标准 英语的交替使用、对圣经语言的涉指和对小说人物命名方式的喻指，以及喻指性 的语言所赋予小说的政治诉求力量等四个方面来揭示种族歧视下非裔美国人其 生存状态对语言要求的特殊性。 第二章分别探究了小说文本中来自西方文学和文化传统中的四个喻指意象： 替罪羊、植物原型意象、及作为美国白人意识传播的两个主要文化载体识字 课本和电影院的意象；以及来自非裔美国文学传统中的三个喻指意象:颜色、有 声读物和情色意象。 莫里森通过运用这些喻指意象含蓄地表达了她对待美国主流 文化和白人意识的态度，以及非裔美国人对其自身生存状态的感受。 第三章论述了小说对同一传统下其他的文本的喻指，即非裔美国文学中的 “互文性修订” 。本部分主要通过黑人成长主题和布鲁斯音乐叙述来论述莫里森 的著作与拉尔夫艾里森的小说文本看不见的人的继承性喻指关系。 以上三章的分析不仅对微观的文本内部语言和意象， 而且对宏观的文本之间 的喻指关系都进行了详细的阐释。本文最后总结了莫里森在最蓝的眼睛中运 用喻指这一手段来召唤作为种族群体的非裔美国人对自身生存状态进行思考、 对 个人和社会自由、拥有文化和完整的追寻。 关键词：关键词： 最蓝的眼睛非裔美国文学 喻指性分析 iv abstract toni morrison is one of the preeminent contemporary afro-american novelists and has been awarded the 1993 nobel prize for literature. she is not only influenced by the western literary tradition, but also roots herself in the black experience. this thesis is based on the henry louis gatess interpretive theory of signifyin(g) to present a systematic analytical mode of toni morrisons the bluest eye, which aims to offer a new way of reading and appreciating morrisons works. according to henry louis gates, signifyin(g) manifests itself in afro-american literature as explicit theme and rhetorical strategy mainly by signifyin(g) on language and imagery within the text, and signifyin(g) on text in between. therefore, this thesis analyzes toni morrisons the bluest eye correspondently from three chapters: the first chapter devotes to explore the novels signifyin(g) on language from four perspectives, namely, the mixture of standard english and black vernacular, the echo of the bible, signifyin(g) way of naming, and the effect of political appeal as a further exploration. the second chapter focuses on morrisons explicit signifyin(g) on imagery both from western literary and cultural tradition, and afro-american literary tradition to express her implicit understanding of american mainstream culture and of pains that afro-american people suffer. the third chapter will provide intertextual evidence to show morrisons signifyin(g) on ralph ellisons invisible man by revising the theme of black bildungsroman and inheriting the blues as narrative aesthetics. based on the above analysis, the thesis reaches its conclusion that toni morrison applies signifyin(g) as a mode of writing to ponder the problems of the afro-american existence, and to quest for afro-american personal and social freedom, literacy and wholeness. key words: the bluest eye; afro-american literature; signifyin(g) analysis 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 “a signifyin(g) analysis of toni morrisons the bluest eye”，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 中已经注明引用的内容外， 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 inheriting the legacy of afro-american literature, toni morrison is one of the preeminent contemporary american novelists. she was born chole anthony wofford and raised by working-class parents in the small town of lorain, ohio. in 1970, she made her debut the bluest eye as a novelist and frequently focused on black communities in her fictions. soon she gained the attention of both critics and a wider audience for her “reflection of breadth of the anonymous black mans experience in america”. 1 throughout most of her works, the bluest eye (1970), sula (1973), song of solomon (1977), tar baby ( 1981), beloved (1987), jazz (1992) and paradise (1998), morrison has managed to convey racial pains and explored the unique culture inheritance of black americans in terms of universal ethical issues, namely, the tension between the individual and society. therefore, she has been widely acclaimed as evocative meditations on black cultural identity in contemporary american. in 1993, she was awarded the nobel prize for her contribution that “writing novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, she gives life to an essential aspect of american reality”, 2 which marks a significant milestone in the development of afro-american literature. toni morrisons first work, the bluest eye, was published by holt, rinehart and winston in 1970. it focalizes most explicitly on what it means to grow up black and female in the 20th century america. the story presents a disturbing glimpse of the dichotomy existing between the two very distinct cultures: anglo and afro-american, and the influences of their differing aesthetic and societal values upon the psyche of a young black girl pecola breedloves disquieting desire for a pair of blue eyes. although morrison was not familiar with much writing by other afro-american writers when her first novel was published, she had had a profound impact upon the careers of a range of black authors with the upsurge of promoting the black voice. gloria naylor describes most eloquently the effort that morrisons work has inspired her as a young author: 2 the presence of the bluest eye served vital purposes at that moment in my life. it is said to a young black woman, struggling to find a mirror of her worth in this society, not only is your story worth telling but it can be told in words so painstakingly eloquent that it becomes a song. 3 the novel has also been most sympathetically reviewed by black aesthetic critics. ruby dee agues that the novel performs a valuable cultural function for the black community, the exposure of the destructive force of white aesthetic standards strengthens the case for the black aesthetic espoused by the cultural nationalists. dellita martin comments that by exposing its damaging psychological and social effects the novel helps to propel the liberation of afro-american literature from the constraints of the western aesthetics. in the bluest eye, morrison works to subvert white norms of beauty and proves that the consciousness of beauty is socially constructed. the blue eyes that pecola dreams of allow the world to see pecola herself anew, through a lens unclouded by racism and norms of beauty shaped by a myopic white culture. instead of portraying positive images of blackness, morrison concentrates on the trauma that the black women characters subject to through the construction of femininity in the racialized society. as gurleen grewal sates, merely reversing perceived “ugliness” to beautiful blackness is not enough, “for such counter-rhetoric does not touch the heart of the matter: the race-based class structure upheld by dominant norms and stereotypes”. 4 it is toni morrison who seeks for the cultural pathology behind them with lyrical grace in her impressionistic novel. the complex narrative is faithfully adapted to the stage by lydia diamond, and directed by hallie gordon from steppenwolf theater company, which has been presented at the duke theater on 42nd street, manhattan in 2006. the novel has inspired volumes of literary criticism from different aspects. a number of scholars and doctoral dissertations over the world have criticized and assessed morrisons work, “seeking to unravel the complexity that she prides on”. 5 the critical approaches to this novel include feminist, psychoanalysis, culture 3 criticism and marxist, etc. among which feminist reading is mostly invited, miner provides insightful vision that the novel allots the values of absence and presence along sexual lines, therefore all male characters in the bluest eye contributes to the depresencing of pecola. and later critics often concern themselves with the subject of female self-identity, most notably are jacqueline de weever and jane s. bakerman. weever has explored the crisis of black identity when cultural values are defined by a white society in morrisons work, and illustrated the dilemma of black women under the white norms of beauty. bakerman has demonstrated the novel as morrisons female characters searching for love, a sense of self-worthy and their initiation experiences. in the mid-1980s, morrisons work initiates a number of psychoanalytic reviews. a large portion of psychoanalytic critics regards that her work contains either implicit or explicit reference to the insights of modern psychoanalysis. preoccupied by the psychological complexity of characters, portales analyzes the demented personality of shirley temple and cholly in his essay. marxism criticism has also been adopted to analyze morrisons class consciousness, while in 1991 doreatha mbalia examines that the cause of the afro-americans afflicting oppression is racism. he identifies positive marxist principles that morrisons work tries to explore humanism, collectivism and egalitarianism. later with development of culture criticism, the novel attracts popular attentions for its combination of social observation with allusive commentary which gives her fiction the symbolic quality of myth. l. h. stallings in his black performance and cultural criticism has explored morrisons use of the grotesque in the bluest eye as an aggressive weapon to provide readers with different perceptions. during the 1990s, narratology has been brought into stage to discuss morrisons narrative strategies and womanish discourse of this novel. in recent studies of morrisons work, linden peach summaries the tendency of stressing the interconnection of history and psychic trauma. morrisons the bluest eye has also inspired a large quantity of reviews, essays and monograph studies in china. in 1994, wu hong and deng zhongliang first translated some extracts into chinese, until 2002 chen sudong gave the novel a full-text chinese version. in 1999, the publication of gender, race and culture: a 4 study of toni morrisons novels by wang shouren and wu xinyun signified as a landmark on morrisons study in china, in which the theme of whitenesss negative impact upon the blacks and its artistic skills of story-telling in the bluest eye were systematically explored. in 2006, wang quan presented an examination of pecolas “mirror stage” and provided a solution for her psych dilemma in the light of lacanian reading. in 2007, zhang ruling published study on toni morrison, which showed an intensive analysis of morrisons thematic concern of racial, cultural and political elements, and its modern artistic techniques of multiple-voiced narrative and stream of consciousness in the bluest eye. she found that morrisons work was deeply rooted in the afro-american cultural tradition, such as structuring the story with african circular concept of time, dabbling in the supernatural elements and reclaiming the presence of past by characters names. after a careful examination of literature reviews, it is not difficult to see that the critiques of the novel have been mostly dominated by the perspectives of western literary canon. however, few studies penetrate into afro-americans distinguishing cultural and psychological world, and present a system of idiographic exploration of the writers black experience. therefore, to draw a line from the previous research conducted on morrisons work and liberate it from mainstream euro-centric criticism, this thesis is based on the henry louis gatess interpretive theory of signifyin(g) to present a systematic analytical mode of toni morrisons the bluest eye within the framework of marginal afro-american criticism, aiming to offer a new way of reading and appreciating morrisons literary text. henry louis gates, as an american literary critic, scholar, educator, essayist, editor and chair of afro-american studies at harvard university, explores the advent structuralism, post-structuralism critical theory, and semiotics to the textual analysis and matters of identity politics in afro-american literary traditions. as an outspoken critic of the euro-centric literary canon, he insists that black tradition should speak for itself about its nature rather than evaluated by imported western theories which results in an intellectual racism “a tone deafness to the black cultural voice”. 6 5 in his book the signifying monkey: a theory of afro-american literary criticism (1988), gates attempts to identify how the afro-american tradition has inscribed its own theories within elaborate hermeneutical and rhetorical systems that could be drawn upon for a genuinely black criticism. he extends application of the concept of “signifyin(g)” to appreciation of afro-american works, and distinguishes the afro-american usage of “signifyin(g) from the standard english homonym “signifying” by capitalizing letter “s” and bracketing the final consonant “g” to indicate the way afro-american people speak. thus the criticism is deeply rooted in the afro-american vernacular tradition. tracing the history of the concept of signifying, it has become a crucial aspect of contemporary theory since ferdinand de saussure, who points out in his major work course in general linguistics (1916) that language is a system of signs, and a sign is the association of the signifier with the signified. any given signifier is dependent upon that which is signified in a semiotic relationship of signification “the process of signifying”, 7 a meaning making behavior in which people engage following particular conventions of construction and interpretation. however, gates has found that this neologism in the western tradition is a homonym of a term in the black vernacular tradition approximately two centuries old. signifyin(g), as an afro-american cultural practice, is derived from the trickster archetype of yoruba mythology, esu-elegbara a divine messenger between gods and humans, the keeper of logos. he is the ultimate copula linguistically, connecting truth with understanding, and text with understanding. above all, esu is the black interpreter. “whereas the god ifa is the next of divine will, esu is the texts interpreter.” 8 the yoruba myth of the origins of interpretation is relevant to the use of esu as the figure of the critic, thus esu has been the indigenous black metaphor, a repeated topos and also a trope, a word that used in the yoruba discourse in figurative senses far removed from its literal denotations. while the signifying monkey, as esus functional equivalent in afro-american mythic discourse, is transported to america through a displacement of monkey in african myth in the new world. in general, the poetic folklore depicts the signifying monkeys intent on demystifying 6 the lions self-imposed status as king of the jungle, and tricking the lion into tangling with the elephant, the true king of the jungle in the animal kingdom. the lion later realizes that his status has been deflated not because elephants brutal self-defense, but because he has fundamentally misunderstood the status of the monkeys statements. the poem presents the moment in lines: (the lion) said, “monkey, im not kicking your ass for lyin, im kicking your hairy ass for signifyin.” 9 “lie” is a traditional afro-american word for figurative discourse, as sterling a. brown states, it signifies story-telling and constitutes a signal form of signifyin(g). therefore, signifyin(g) as a rhetorical strategy is directly emanated from the signifying monkey tale. within the black cultural matrix, it is tropological and often characterized by pastiche and turns on repetition of formal structures. gates approaches it as a theory of reading arisen from afro-american culture and maintains that “learning how to signify is often part of our adolescent education”. 10 signifyin(g) seems to be a negro term, and critics have commented upon the utilization of word “signifyin(g)” in black discourse for some time. harold bloom characterizes signifyin(g) as the slaves trope, a trope that subsumes other rhetorical tropes, including metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony, etc., “the trope of tropes”. 11 roger d. abrahams argues implicitly that signifin(g) is the black persons figurative modes of language use. it is a language of implication, a technique of indirect argument, to imply, goad, beg and boast by set of words or gestures that arrives at direction through indirection. for thomas kochman, signifyin(g) implies an aggressive mode of rhetoric, a form of symbolic action that yields catharsis. while claudia mitchell-kernan refers signifyin(g) to a way of encoding messages or meanings which involves an element of indirection. the hearer thus is constrained to attend all potential meaning carrying symbolic systems in speech events. in other words, it is the figurative difference 7 between the literal and metaphorical, between surface and latent meaning, which presupposes “an encoded intention to say one thing but to mean quite another.” 12 zora neale hurston in her mules and men (1935) illustrates the term as a rhetorical understatement for afro-american people to convey their point of views and attitudes indirectly. she is the first author of the tradition to present signifyin(g) as a rhetorical strategy in the narration and a vehicle of liberation from oppression. all in all, signifyin(g) is a complex rhetorical device; it stands as a moment of consciousness of black formal language use, of rhetorical structures and their appropriate modes of interpretation, “the indeterminacy of interpretation because of the ambiguity of figurative language”. 13 signifyin(g), as to gates, is the blacks