多丽丝·莱辛在《野草在歌唱》中的二元对立解构_英语论文

The Deconstruction of Binary Opposition in Doris Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing

摘要

多丽丝·莱辛是2007年诺贝尔文学奖得主，被誉为继佛吉尼亚·伍尔夫之后英国最伟大的女作家。其风格独特多变，思想深邃，极具创造力。她的处女作《野草在歌唱》一经出版就引起了国内外评论界的广泛关注。早期国外评论界主要从精神分析和心理学层面阐释女主人公玛丽精神崩溃的悲剧，国内的研究者更多地将该作品作为一部殖民小说来解读。

本文运用解构主义理论，在前人研究成果基础上对小说中出现的三组二元对立（人类/自然、男性/女性、白人/黑人）进行进一步的研究。旨在深刻地探讨作品主题，表达最终走向所有文化和谐共处、平等相待的自由民主社会的理想,和实现全人类一切平等的乌托邦理想。

关键词:二元对立；人类与自然；男性与女性；白人与黑人

Abstract

Doris Lessing is the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature and the greatest female writer in Britain after Virginia Woolf. Her works are unique and flexible in style with deep thoughts. Her maiden work The Grass Is Singing causes widespread concern among critics as it comes out. Early foreign critics mainly analyze Mary’s tragedy from the perspectives of psychoanalysis and psychology. As for the domestic researches, they usually interpret this novel as a colonial one.

In this thesis, the deconstruction theory is used for further studying the three groups of binary opposition (mankind vs. nature, man vs. woman, whites vs. blacks) in this novel to explore the theme of the work. It expresses the ideal to set up a free and democratic society that eventually leads to the coexistence of all cultures and equal treatment. And the utopian ideal of equality for human beings can be realized in the future. 

Keywords: binary opposition; human beings vs. nature; man vs. woman; whites vs. blacks

Contents

Acknowledgementsi

Abstract & Key words in Englishii

Abstract & Key words in Chineseiii

Introduction 1

1. Human beings vs. nature 2

1.1 Changes in the African continent 2

1.2 Changes in Mr. Slater’s farm 4

2. Man vs. woman 5

2.1 Mary’s father and Mary 5

2.2 Dick and Mary 6

2.3 Moses and Mary 7

3. Whites vs. blacks 8

3.1 Whites can hire and abuse blacks 8

3.2 Blacks cannot touch whites under any circumstances 8

3.3 The ambiguity of Mary and Moses 9

Conclusion 11

Notes 13

Reference 14