【作者】 张颖；

【导师】 江宁康；

【作者基本信息】 南京大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2014， 硕士

【摘要】 《血色子午线》是科马克·麦卡锡的重要转型作品,讲述了一群亡命之徒在美国和墨西哥边境猎取头皮以换来赏金的故事。虽然在处理暴力和血腥场面上,小说延续了作者一贯毫无忌讳的风格,但故事发生的地点由南方转移到了西南部边境。学者和评论家对这部小说有多种诠释,但少有从反英雄角度去分析小说中的人物。本文旨在分析《血色子午线》中两个重要人物的身份,即霍顿法官和那小孩的角色本质。通过将这两个人物和美国边境文学中出现的英雄人物作对比,本文将探究两个人物形象在反传统和反英雄层面上的意义。一方面,麦卡锡描述的边境不再是英雄孕育的沃土,那小孩寻着边境英雄的轨迹,向西部逃去,但他后天成长受到限制,这和长期以来边境小说中神化的美国西部和边境是相违背的,也挑战着读者对传统西部和边境历史的认识。那小孩并没有像成长小说中的主角,如马克·吐温笔下的哈克贝利芬那样破茧成蝶,反而慢慢堕落失去生机,更像《麦田里的守望者》中的男孩霍顿。另一方面,霍顿法官以人类文明和战争为名,企图成为一切的征服者,操纵者和毁灭者,包括自然和人类社会。但是,霍顿法官只敢选择与低能儿和孩童密切相处和他收集记录一切未知的自然物品等行为,麦卡锡也许表达的是这种慑人征服欲的背后是怯懦和恐惧,正如人类对未知的恐惧。霍顿法官无法主持正义,不能像詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库珀笔下的纳蒂·班波那样去保护自然和人类的和谐,他是文明外衣下野蛮的象征,他是人类的“科学怪人”。两位反英雄那小孩和霍顿法官的对抗更突出了彼此缺陷的致命。二者在沙漠绝境中对峙,到监狱中的僵持,最后到格里芬酒吧中决断。不仅那孩子渐渐沦为牺牲品,霍顿法官也日渐式微,两人都与他们的英雄前辈渐行渐远。两个人物虽然都具备一定的边境英雄素质,但他们都是受害者,都有致命的缺陷,同时他们所处的时代缺乏赋予英雄的土壤。霍顿法官在长期的屠杀和战争中已经失去人性,而那小孩在成长过程中没有判断力去选择朋友和人生道路。两个角色是该小说的主角和主要视角焦点,但他们都缺少了边境英雄的重要组成部分。他们的缺陷不会让读者产生悲剧的共鸣,反而给读者机会反思时代和人性。他们的命运表达的是一种重新审视边境文学的需求,审视是否反英雄人物的刻画真正表现了边境扩张和种族屠杀的本质。更多还原

【Abstract】 Blood Meridian is a substantial transition in Cormac McCarthy’s works, mainly unfolding the scalp-hunting conducted by a gang of filibusters in exchange for bounties in the borders between America and Mexico. As in his previous work, the author leaves no blankness in exposing scenes of violence and bloodiness, but the scenes shift from Southern towns to the Southwest border. Scholars and critics have interpreted the novel from multiple perspectives, but few have analyzed it from the angles of antiheroes. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the identity issues on the two characters, the judge and the kid, in Cormac McCarthy’s frontier narration Blood Meridian(1985) in comparison with fictional and biographical heroes in American frontier literature. It further goes to locate the connotations and symbolisms of the two characters in terms of antiheroes and anti-tradition in frontier narrations.On the one hand, under McCarthy’s depiction, the frontier was no longer a fertile land to nurture heroes. The kid ran away from home to follow the trajectory of frontier heroes, heading west. Yet, his growth was curbed and twisted. It seems to be a far cry from the western mythology created in traditional frontier literature, and a challenge to the stereotypes and consensus of American frontier history. The kid did not evolve to be a hero like protagonists in other novel of formation, such as Huckleberry Finn. Instead, he was gradually corrupted and ashen like Holden in The Catcher of the Rye. One the other hand, Judge Holden attempted to take on the role as a dominator, manipulator and destroyer under the disguise of justice and the excuse of civilization and wars. Yet, the motivation is perhaps horror of the unknown, because he only dared to befriend with the imbecile and the vulnerable kids. Besides, he was obsessed with colleting and destructing unseen objects in the nature for fear that one day they might be his undoing. Judge Holden could not represent justice. He would not win readers’heart like James Fenimore Cooper’s Natty Bumpoo who protected the nature legacy and maintain the balance between human races. Rather, he was the Frankenstein created by the extreme anthropocentrism.The antagonism and confrontations between the kid and the judge bring out the fatality of each’s defect. The kid and the judge desperately contain each other in the desert, resolutely refuse to budge in the Mexican prison and eventually settle their in the jake at the Griffin bar. Both end as nobody in the frontier. The conclusion is that both the kid and the judge were victims in a barren land incapable of the production of heroes. Despite the significances of the two roles in the entire narration, the kid lacked the judgment and guidance to select the path to the Shrine of fronter heroes, and that the judge was mentally broken and maimed by his obsession of dominance and war. Their defects could not conjure up tragical sympathy and compassion in readers. Instead, their fates arouse needs to ponder over the significance of the frontier narrations, to ask whether the portrayal of anti-frontier heroes bespeak the truth about the essence of the frontier expansion and genocide.更多还原