（英语语言文学专业论文）论《另一个国家》中的跨种族性关系.pdf

descriptive chinese abstract i 摘摘 要要 詹姆斯 鲍德温是二十世纪美国著名的黑人作家 在他探讨过的众多主题中 对种族 和性问题的看法尤其引人注目 鲍德温在他第三部小说 另一个国家 中精心刻画了两对黑白恋人 对黑白之间的 跨种族性关系进行了深入的剖析 由于深受种族主义思想的控制 小说中的黑白恋人的 感情发展中充满了困惑与绝望 其中一对恋人以白人女子的发疯和黑人男子的自杀而告 终 而另一对的恋情虽然取得了一定的进展 但是他们的结局依然难以预料 小说中出 现的其他几对性关系也存在一系列的不确定性因素 这些性关系中存在的问题向人们展 示了美国文化中存在的种族偏见和性偏见 但是 从总体上讲 尽管心存困惑 小说中 的人物大都怀着种族融合的愿望 积极寻找解决社会问题的办法 而不像黑人抗议小说 里的主人公那样采取极端行为 本文通过对 另一个国家 的仔细研读并结合对相关历史和文化背景以及鲍德温其 他文本的分析 得出了如下结论 鲍德温在研究性关系的同时兼顾了紧张的黑白种族矛 盾 并力图将种族关系与性关系结合起来以探求普遍的人性 希望籍此帮助黑人和白人走 出精神困境 从而促进种族融合 在处理 另一个国家 中的跨种族性关系和其他性关 系问题上 鲍德温虽然表现出了深深的困惑 但是他并没有放弃为种族融合所做的努力 整部小说洋溢着一位充满爱心并富有社会责任感的作家对同胞怀有的浓厚的人文关怀 在写作 另一个国家 时 鲍德温将他本人的各个时期的经历巧妙地融入到其刻画 的人物生活中 因而 从这个意义上说 解读该小说的跨种族性关系能够发掘鲍德温本 人在对待国内种族问题上的困惑以及他对同胞难以割舍的爱 为人们更全面地了解鲍德 温的思想和创作提供了一个很好的机会 关键词 詹姆斯 鲍德温 另一个国家 跨种族性关系 困惑 爱 english abstract ii abstract james baldwin has been considered one of the greatest american writers of the twentieth century among all the subjects he concerns his racial and sexual politics are most striking in his third novel another country baldwin makes an intensive study of interracial sexuality by elaborately characterizing two interracial couples confined by racism the two couples keep in a state of agony and confusion during their sexual love as a result one couple ends up with the white woman s insanity and the black man s suicide and as for the other though their love gets developed to some extent their future remains uncertain the uncertainty in the interracial sexuality and in some other minor sexuality brings people to a better understanding of how the very existence of rigid categories of race and sex in american cultures has ruined the prospect of a harmonious society however on the whole in spite of their confusion the interracial couples as well as other characters do not go to extremes as characters in black protest novels usually do instead with the hope for racial reconciliation they struggle to find better solutions to the social problems after a careful study of another country with the related historical and cultural background as well as baldwin s other works this thesis draws a conclusion as follows baldwin gives equal consideration to the tense racial contradiction while dealing with the sexual prejudices and he tries to link them to probe into the universal humanity while doing so baldwin aims at extricating both the black and the white from their confusion and promoting the racial reconciliation while dealing with the interracial sexuality though he gets confused most of the time baldwin does not give up his attempt on racial reconciliation the black writer baldwin full of love and social responsibility has a strong humanist solicitude for his fellow men in the novel in another country baldwin interweaves his personal experiences of different periods of his time with those of his characters therefore by means of the study of the interracial sexuality baldwin s own confusion on the racial problem and his love for his people can be collected which will contribute to the comprehensive understanding of baldwin key words james baldwin another country interracial sexuality confusion love 湘潭大学湘潭大学 学位论文原创性声明学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明 所呈交的论文是本人在导师的指导下独立进行研究所取得的 研究成果 除了文中特别加以标注引用的内容外 本论文不包含任何其他个人或 集体已经发表或撰写的成果作品 对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体 均 已在文中以明确方式标明 本人完全意识到本声明的法律后果由本人承担 作者签名 日期 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学校有关保留 使用学位论文的规定 同意学校保 留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版 允许论文被查阅和借 阅 本人授权湘潭大学可以将本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 缩印或扫描等复制手段保存和汇编本学位论文 涉密论文按学校规定处理 作者签名 日期 年 月 日 导师签名 日期 年 月 日 introduction 1 introduction interracial sexuality especially sex between the black and the white was long regarded as an american taboo the essence of which lay in the deeply rooted white supremacy afro americans as the descendants of slaves were usually considered intellectually and socially inferior to whites unhygienic physically repugnant and hypersexual foster 2003 14 for instance benjamin ruth 1745 1813 one of the signatories of the declaration of independence believed that the blackness in african slaves was a mild and apparently uncontagious form of a disease and thomas jefferson 1743 1826 the nation s third president considered african slaves ugly and believed that they were inherently inferior to whites in both mind and body under such a premise it was not surprising that the black had been legally separated from the white for a long period in american history herbert spencer 1820 1903 an english sociologist and philosopher adopted charles darwin s idea of the survival of the fittest and applied it to the human condition in his book principles of sociology 1896 spencer argued against intermarriage as he felt it would result in the degeneration of the human stock gonzales 1996 16 18 so did many other white supremacists in their eyes interbreeding with blacks would have a deleterious effect upon the racial purity of white america resulting in disastrous social political and economic consequences gardner 2000 12 hence the white tried to consolidate the myth of the white supremacy and pursued the ideal of racial purity with much intensity and consistency many black men were lynched for their intimacy with white women when outright extermination was not possible or desirable the white attempted in various ways to distance or neutralize the black in order to be racially pure they kept smearing both black men and black women in american history they set about depicting blacks as physically distasteful and socially inferior in order to prohibit exogamy or intermarriage and promote endogamy or in group marriage the common assumption was that black women were especially passionate and black men were particularly virile introduction 2 promiscuous and lusty for by calling the negro women passionate white men were offering the best possible justifications for their own passions for black women which was not fully acceptable to society or themselves and hence not readily admissible at the same time black men were conceived of as clown buffoon docile in character spineless and overly superstitious or debauched criminal and was inclined to violence and murder gardner 2000 18 by uglifying black men white men tried to prevent white women from sleeping with black men who were suggested to be oversexed and had a voracious and inordinate passion for white women no matter how old and unattractive they might be gardner 2000 21 furthermore a common feeling was formed within the white society that only the most depraved white women would consent to sleep with a negro those white women who had interracial sexual relations with black men were hated by the white society therefore for a long time white women were besieged by fear of sexual intercourses with black men most commonly in order to keep their supremacy the long term discrimination was translated into laws and social policies that guaranteed the racial segregation in the end the legal institutions confirmed unequal treatment of the minorities and ultimately justified their subordination a cogent example lay in the marriage system it was not until the late 1960s that many states of america especially those in the south had actually remained anti miscegenation laws to prevent legal marriage from occurring between blacks and whites even when the supreme court of the united states declared antimiscegenation laws unconstitutional in 1967 and then these laws were removed form the books there was still widespread opposition to white black interracial relationships and on interracial marriage gardner 2000 12 as far as the black were considered interracial sexuality encountered equally strong rejection suffering a lot from racial discrimination the black kept strong hatred and extreme terror in their hearts which made it nearly impossible to fall in love with the white what s more that black women had historically been used by the white men unscrupulously became a permanent insult to the black as a result the majority of the black were reluctant to be intimate with whites except for revenge even when they were legally allowed to do so since the 1960s lerone bennett pointed out that at the very least miscegenation sowed seeds of distrust and suspicion practically all negro males bitterly resented the one way introduction 3 prerogatives of the white male on occasion this bitterness flared into open and rather hopeless violence bennett 1964 however interracial sexuality between the white and the black according to contemporary research came into existence early in american history elise lemire 2002 3 argued that race in its modern usage owed its very existence as a category of difference to the impulse of whites to define a set of traits that are more or less sexually desirable in the years between the american revolution and the civil war during the period of slavery sexual activity between white males and female slaves though never attaining respectability or social acceptance was not actively condemned instead it was common practice for white masters especially those in the south to select young healthy female slaves for their exclusive sexual pleasure and impregnation of the black female slaves was encouraged since this insured a constant supply of mulatto children who promoted an increase in the size of the labor force available to the white masters gardner 2000 2 3 with a genealogical research it was not hard to find that there was a high degree of miscegenation between the black and the white in america although with unwillingness the american whites could not avoid admitting the possibility of negro blood in their veins and black families were often reminded of their famous white relatives while reading their family records or the biographies of famous whites as charles l blockson 1994 46 reported many black families still living in pennsylvania could even trace their ancestry directly back to the slaves of william penn 1644 1718 the state s founder in american literature interracial sexuality attracted much attention from both white writers and black ones who did deep research into this social phenomenon generally speaking in literature interracial sexuality had been long considered prohibitive unacceptable or at least different from those who married or fell in love within their race until the post world war ii era when the notion experienced dramatic change as for white writers even for the most democratic white racial reformers or abolitionists perhaps best represented by nathaniel hawthorne harriet beecher stowe william lloyd garrison and william wells brown afro americans possessed no individual identity but existed as the representative figures who should be controlled they showed the dominance of racial flattering assumptions and myths both in the use of tragic mulatto stereotype and in introduction 4 the often hidden system of narrative reward and punishment when presenting the miscegenation plot in their works racially mixed characters were rewarded for repressing ancestral connections with africa and for marrying whites these early works implicitly or explicitly advocated cultural monism and promoted passing for white for their racially mixed characters to avoid what could be further degeneration in associating and identifying with blacks little 1989 4 therefore these early liberals were actually advocating an idea that as blacks were inferior to the whites in order to keep society developing the black should be completely assimilated by the white although these early white abolitionists still kept in mind the sense of superiority of their own ethnic group they did develop a much different idea from those before interracial sexuality was a worthwhile attempt to resolve the racial problem in america they were quite aware of the damage caused by racial discrimination so they called for racial tolerance they scathingly critiqued the destructive nature of america s white supremacy and considered racial discrimination as the source of america s racial problem many latecomers including both black and white inherited their democratic ideas and continued to advocate racial reconciliation in their works most important of all many writers successfully transcending these early liberals outlooks became more mature in dealing with the social problems in their works they supported cultural pluralism which encouraged cultural diversity and appealed for cultural differences within society ibid 62 in the 1940s and 50s stimulated by the awakening of black racial consciousness after the world war ii a marked change took place in the works of the white liberal writers on the subject matter of interracial sexuality in the works of such writers as sinclair lewis cid richetts summer lillian smith robert penn warren and ersline caldwell the mulattoes were acceptable and blackness was appreciated although still limited by their society s blind spots these white liberals struggled to overcome the pervasive racist assumptions and myths of the past little 1989 5 7 they insisted that ethical reform of american whites admitting others as equal citizens be an indispensable step in the comprehensive reconceptualization of america itself likewise there existed two different opinions on interracial sexuality among black writers according to the works of early black authors such as frank webb france harper introduction 5 james johnson walter white jessie fauset and nella larsen those who tried to reject their links with the black community by passing for white and marrying into a white family were to pay much these authors expressed a notion that the time for assimilation had not come therefore a close connection with the black community and a sense of racial royalty should be developed in order to survive in a hostile environment after the mid nineteenth century with the awakening of their racial consciousness african americans got deeper insights into the problem of their identity in america many afro american writers refused to depict the humanity of the black from the perspective of the white instead some afro american writers represented by henry garnet charles chesnutt du bois and paul dunbar gave profound analyses and bare disclosure of the racial discrimination in america in their works a lot of rebellious black characters were shaped hence the protest tradition came into being although the system of slavery was abolished after the civil war the living conditions of african americans remained terrible till the twentieth century the secret terrorist society ku klux klan based on a program of white supremacy was nationwide especially in the south a lot of blacks rose up against white racism which brought a new upsurge of race awareness to a large degree many black intellectuals represented by langston hughes and richard wright among others followed up and developed the protest tradition when it came to the 1950s and 1960s with the national contradictions of america becoming acute the black s appeal of desegregation and civil rights was gathering from the mid 1960s till the beginning of 1970s as the civil rights movement was spread the whole country was in unbroken turbulence racial hostility was fashionable such radical black writers as lei roi jones and ed bullins definitely took literature as the tool for political struggle to promote the civil rights movement under the circumstances sexual intercourse with the white was regarded as prohibitive except for revenge for instance the black radical eldridge cleaver went flat against the white supremacy by deliberately claiming his crimes of raping white women in his autobiographical work soul on ice 1968 cleaver explicitly explained the intention of his rape as revenge on the white men rape was an insurrectionary act it delighted me that i was defying and trampling upon the white man s law upon his system of values and that i was defiling his introduction 6 women and this point i believe was the most satisfying to me because i was very resentful over the historical fact of how the white man has used the black woman i felt i was getting revenge from the site of the act of rape consternation spreads outwardly in concentric circles i wanted to send waves of consternation throughout the white race cleaver 1968 14 another radical black writer leroi jones expressed the same idea as cleaver s in his 1964 poem the dead lecturer ibid 14 to maintain his revolutionary consciousness jones even divorced his white wife and married a black one nevertheless during the second world war a great change occurred in americans ideas of race the war greatly heightened the black s race consciousness enthusiasm of politics and courage to change society and they became confident in their fight against racial discrimination a case in point was the consequent civil rights movement in the meantime to a certain extent the white americans racial attitudes changed too with the appeal of the liberal whites the direct discrimination against blacks was reduced and the american government even took some effective measures to improve the living conditions of the black communities in education and employment what s more multiculturalism was advocated and it made great achievement which contributed to racial equality and democracy american society gradually became more tolerant and open to marginal cultures among which were various sexual cultures people s consciousness of sexuality was awakened the postwar saw the ascendancy of popular culture and the advent of sexual liberalism in spite of much imperfection take homosexuality as an example the gays who had been marginalized were freed from the social controls placed on heterosexuals dievler 1999 169 so was the sexual relationship between the black and the white that the antimiscegenation laws were declared to be unconstitutional in 1967 confirmed such a social development under the circumstances some blacks such as willard savoy carl milton hughes chester himes ralph ellison and james baldwin began to realize that the insistence on hostile