《天堂》中的精神生态解读_英语论文

A Spiritual Ecological Interpretation of Paradise 

摘要

托尼·莫里森（1931-）是迄今为止唯一一位获得诺贝尔文学奖的黑人女作家，她被公认为当今世界最杰出的小说家之一。其作品情感炙热，关注在白人主流社会中美国黑人对自身文化生存和文化身份的探索，并以对美国黑人生活的敏锐观察而闻名。《天堂》则是托尼·莫里森在获诺贝尔文学奖后的第一部作品，也被视为托尼·莫里森“最为奇怪、最为原创性的作品”。

《天堂》以美国内战结束后，奴隶制被废除，黑人初步得到了解放为历史背景，讲述了一群黑人眼见自己先辈创建的小镇黑文的衰颓之势无法挽回，于是决定迁徙并重建新家园——鲁比。然而多年后新家园内外矛盾日益激化，居民们变得越来越自私、排外，他们“以黑为美”，排除甚至驱逐浅肤色的小镇居民，从而走向了新的种族主义。小说故事发生在美国南方俄克拉荷马州彼此相距十七英里的两处地方：一个是黑人聚居的小镇鲁比，另一个是有着天主教背景的女修道院。小说通过两处人群行为生活的对比来展现黑人生活的现状，折射出托尼·莫里森对黑人族群前景的忧虑。

当今社会物质财富发展尤为迅速，但物质的增加并不能保证人们内心精神世界的健全。在国家乃至全球发展进步的过程中，单个族群所受的影响也应该得到考虑和关注。本课题的研究在一定程度上可起到警醒世人的作用，有较好的现实意义。

关键词：托尼·莫里森；《天堂》；美国黑人；精神生态解读

Abstract

Toni Morrison, a famous female writer in the history of contemporary American literature, released a novel titled Paradise in 1999, which is her seventh novel. The background of Paradise is that slavery was abolished after the end of the American Civil War, and the blacks were liberated initially. In Paradise, a group of black people found that the town Haven their predecessors set up declining rapidly, and since they could not hold back, they decided to migrate and rebuild another new one. After experiencing a lot of hardships and racial discrimination, they finally made it, naming their new home—Ruby. However, years later, internal and external contradictions appeared and gradually intensified in the new home, and Ruby residents repeated the story of their predecessors’.

Toni Morrison is the only black woman writer to have won the Nobel Prize for literature in the history of world literature, so she is recognized as one of the most outstanding novelists in the world. Her passionate works are famous for her insightful observation on American blacks’ life, and her thorough understanding of American blacks’ psychology, as well as their innate weaknesses. Therefore, the study of Toni Morrison’s works has much practical significance. This thesis attempts to alert people to pay more attention to the spiritual balance in such a rich society.

Key words: Toni Morrison; Paradise; American blacks; spiritual ecological interpretation

Contents

Acknowledgementsi

Abstract & Key words in Englishii

Abstract & Key words in Chineseiii

Introduction 1

1 Literature review 2

11 A brief introduction to Paradise 2

12 About spiritual ecological criticism 3

    13 Morrison's concern on the spiritual world of American blacks5

2 Spiritual ecological consciousness in Paradise 7

21 Ruby as a terrible lost city 7

211 Haven meaning heaven 7

212 Ruby meaning isolation 8

22 Convent as an ideal paradise on earth 9

221 Mary Magna’s love for Consolata 9

222 Consolata’s kindness to vagrants 9

3 Morrison’s spiritual ecological thought 10

31 Significance of spiritual pursuit 11

32 Necessity of getting closer to nature 11

    33 A timely warning against neoracism12

Conclusion 13

References 15