A Study on Native Son from the Perspective of Trauma_英语论文

摘要

《土生子》被誉为美国黑人文学的里程碑，它深刻揭示了美国社会制度对黑人的迫害，并强调了种族歧视对社会的破坏性作用。本文首先分析了比格，一个歧视的受害者，他不断受到创伤：物质和精神世界的匮乏，不公社会的迫害，“白色”恐怖的侵袭。引发他精神与心理的恐惧、绝望、无助，面对创伤，他以仇恨和暴力作为“创伤应激反应”来让自己不至于全然崩溃。然后本文探究了大多数受制于奴隶文化的烙印和种族歧视的迫害的温驯黑人，他们选择通过宗教、娱乐和苦劳来麻痹、吞忍创伤。最后，本文从赖特的写实手法入手，展现了美国黑人状况在写作和现实间的微小差距。通过分析《土生子》中的创伤，本文既论证了美国社会种族歧视的破坏性，也论证了赖特对美国畸形社会制度控诉的有效性。

关键词:  土生子    创伤文学    种族歧视  

Abstract

Native Son is the milestone of Afro-American literature, it exposes that American social system oppresses black Americans in depth, and it also emphasizes that racism has devastating function to society. Firstly, Bigger is a terrible victim of discrimination. His traumas are deficiency, injustice, ‘whiteness’ terror. He becomes fearful, hopeless, desperate and helpless, which forces his ‘trauma emergency response’ of hatred and violence. On the other hand, the docile blacks are controlled by slavery brand and racism, and choose to numb and suffer; they are cured by religion, indulgence and moil. The final part shows that because of Wright’s realistic technique, there are little distance of Wright’s Native Son and the real position of black Americans. Through analyzing the trauma of Native Son, the paper proves that racism has devastating function to American society; it also testifies validity of Wright’s accusation, which discloses the oppression by abnormal American social system.      

Keywords:  Native Son    trauma   racism  

Contents

1   Introduction 1

1.1    Richard N. Wright and Native Son 1

1.2    Literature Review 2

1.3    Theoretical Framework 4

1.4    Thesis Structure 5

2   Bigger’s Trauma 7

2.1    Self Deficiency 7

2.2    Serious Imbalance 8

2.3    Whiteness 9

3   Docile Blacks’ Trauma and Treatment 11

3.1    Slave History and Racism 11

3.2    Religion, Indulgence and Moil 12

4   Criticism of Wright’s Trauma Writing 14

Conclusion 14

Acknowledgements 15

References 16