从康拉德的_黑暗的心_解读_他者_形象的建构_英文_刘彦仕

［基金项目］四川省教育厅人文社科重点科研项目（11SA099）阶段成果之一。

［作者简介］刘彦仕，男，四川大竹人，四川文理学院外语系副教授，英语语言文学硕士，研究方向：翻译理论与实践、英语教学。

The Formation of the “Other ”Image ：DeconstructiveReading of J．Conrad ’s Heart of Darkness○Liu Yanshi（Department of Foreign Languages ，Sichuan University of Arts and Science ，Dazhou ，Sichuan ，635000）［Abstract ］In the postmodernist context of stressing the difference and opposing singularity ，the “Oriental ”as the“other ”，the object of being gazed ，is the opposite to the “Occidental ”．This article analyzes Conrad ’s Heart of Darkness ，by means of deconstructive reading with a set of postcolonial discourse ，and the “other ”image is fully revealed and formed through detailed descriptions of colonial violence and plundering in the Third Worlds．［Key words ］“other ”，colonial discourse ，Orient ，Occident ，the colonized ［中图分类号］I106．4［文献标识码］A［文章编号］1672-8610（2012）01-0044-03I．About Joseph ConradJoseph Conrad （1857－1924）is an important British author in the late19th and early 20th century．An American well －known writer Henry L．Mengken regards him as the greatest nov-elist．［1］1His novelette Heart of Darkness is famed as one of six classics in the world．［2］98Conrad was born in Poland governed by Russia in 1857．Later he was exiled to the north of Russia for one or another reason．He became an orphan at the age of 12．When he was seventeen years old ，he began to learn sailing in Marseilles ，France ，so he had been to many colonies such as Malay Peninsula ，Africa and South America with the British fleet．He started to learn English at over twenty．In 1886he got his British nationality and soon he began to take up letters in English．In his lifetime ，he wrote many works including novels ，plays ，and essays．For his early voyage life ，relying on his sail-ing experience and he wrote plenty of enchanting stories and pio-neered new fields and broadened threads of creative writing．Ⅱ．About the “Other ”The western culture since the old Greek has emphasized the subject ’s separation from the object．The set of analytical logic system based upon it perfectly presents the feature of binary op-position．The dualistic discourse for the westerner to understand and explain the world is prominent by “self ”and “other ”，gen-erality and individuality ，entirety and segment ，subject and ob-ject ，assimilation and identification ，presence and absence．If modern literary criticism places emphasis on the generality ，ne-cessity and objectivity of knowledge ，what postmodernists such as M．Foucault ，J．Derrida and R．Rorty pursue is to deconstruct “logocentrism ”，to abandon the model of dualistic thinking ，toregard the epistemological object as a text to be interpreted andrecognition as a process of multiple meanings or interpretations．From the different angels they enrich and develop the logic of postmodernist cultural thinking ：stressing the difference and op-posing singularity．Therefore ，literary critics and theoreticians increasingly take into consideration the “other ”as a representa-tive of margin and difference．With the elaborate observation of the Orient “other ”con-structed on the European discourse knowledge ，the long －term images ，stereotypes and general ideology about the “other ”are myths about the laziness ，deceit and irrationality．［3］By Foucau-lt ’s analysis of discourse as power ，Said elucidates the function of cultural representations in the construction and maintenance of “First /Third －World ”relations．He calls for a critical “decen-tered consciousness ”and the aim of dismantling systems of domi-nation．［4］224The “Orient ”as the “other ”is the opposite to the “Occi-dent ”，the object of being gazed．J．Conrad with near twenty －year life on the sea like other western writers gazes the colony in the eyes of westerners．All the colonies exist as the “other ”op-posite to the metropolitans．Their role not only shows the differ-ence between colonies and metropolitans ，and the opposition be-tween the colony and the colonized ，but also provides a new epis-temological perspective．A French scholar Daniel －Henri Pageaux ever argues ，“the so －called ‘other ’is a thing which may set us thinking in another way ”．［5］123Ⅲ．The Western Colonizer ’s “Mission ”At the beginning of the west ’s colonization process ，a set of colonial discourse system was gradually constructed in the west-ern countries．According to the above concepts by the discourse—44—语文学刊·外语教育教学2012年第1期system，the westerners believe that to open up the colony on the “barbarian”non－western land is the civilized people’s duty and right，that it is a sacred task to transmit civilization on the lands and that what the colonizer creates is achievements of “bringing brightness，belief and trade into colony as the back places of the earth”［6］8．The colony as the“other”is a com-pletely strange world for the colonizer who is the first to come，but the colonizer through embellishing this colonial discourse sets up a heroic model，including risky and pioneering spirit，resolute will，plentiful vigour，strong ability of adoption and down－to－earth attitude．Kurtz in the novel Heart of Darkness is relatively a first－class colonizer．As an agent of a trading company，he is in charge of a trading post in the interior heart of Africa，and lives far in the depths of the forest alone．He dares to take risks and have a persistent will and bear hardships．He is believed to“a very remarkable person”because he“sends in as much as all the others put together…”For this reason，“the Council in Europe means him to be some body in the Administration．”［6］50－52It is apparent that Kurtz is exactly needed by the course of western co-lonialism”．Indeed，Kurtz as an agent did not do any trading at all．He came to the interior to seek ivory．At that time he did not barter but armed with fearful weapons he swindled or stolen ivory．To the aboriginal，“he came to them with thunder and light night，you know—and they had never seen anything like it—and very terrible”．［6］168Using the weapons for conquest was what Kurtz did to the aboriginal in the so－called trade．It was what the west colonizer did to the colonized all the time．Of course，there is on occasion resistance．However，Kurtz worked out his own solu-tions．He made a report entrusted by the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs，in which the last page read “Exterminate all the brutes”．It was said that heads on the pole of the fence at the station were“the heads of rebels”．［6］176He possessed heaps of ivory and also conquered those tribes in the forest with the horror of weapons．“He had the power to charm or frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch—dance in his honour”．［6］150Hence，Kurtz’s achievement and further develop-ment of colonialism were as such based upon the bones of the black．Ⅳ．Cultural Hegemony and the“Other”ImageWhat the colonizers have intentionally done is violent con-quest，which is an indisputable event．The question is that the action of Kurtz is absolutely forbidden in the western countries but why does the“civilized”westerners become so barbarian and brutal when entering the colonies？For centuries，the western colonizers are advocating a theo-ry：the westerners are superior to the non－westerners，that is to say，Occidentals are superior to Orientals．Clearly cultural he-gemony（put by A．Gramsci），an indispensable concept for any understanding of cultural life in the industrial West，is reflected in their ideas．The major component in European culture is pre-cisely what made that culture hegemonic both inside and outside Europe：the idea of European identity as a superior one in com-parison with all the non－European ideas about the Orient．The westerners innately have racial superiority and think the white are the top people．Such values and behaviours are what they are holding．Kurtz is very typical．When he first comes to Africa，he thinks he is a missionary of European civilization，representing the superior white people and advanced science and culture．As a result，Kurtz is the murderer of colonial plunder and its victim as well．In the novel，“the Company’s chief accountant”keeps his graceful and delicate clothing，though he is out three years．What is the reason？For he forces one of the native women about the station to do ironing for him．Although she accomplishes something，as a matter of fact，“she had a distaste for the work”．As discussed above，Kurtz is declared to be“King of the Forests”and dominates the life of the native，wins their humble worship like God and owns the beautiful native woman．Above all，they only take advantage of the black native to prove their competence and superiority．With the imposition of the western culture and values，the colonized will certainly believe they are inferior and they worship the colonizers like God so they lose“self”．The colonial condi-tion in the heart is worse than the slave and affliction on the body．Conrad，through the novel，states that only the British col-onizer can do some practical jobs．In his writing，the British Em-pire is the world for the man．Marlow says that the women should not be present in the story of men．In his narration，a few women that Marlow mentions are in the marginalized position of the “other”．Women in the colonies are not only in the subalterns of the“other”but also the source of the calamity．Conrad in this novel reveals the hypocrisy，greed brutaliza-tion of the colonizers．To a certain extent，he defends the west ideology espousing colonialism．Conrad’s perspective of descri-bing the colony and the colonizers pertains to Eurocentrism or ethnocentrism．In his accounts，Africa is a primitive，uncultivat-ed，degraded black belt，“black hills”and“black forests”eve-rywhere，and also Africa is always related to the plague．Almost all the European coming to African land suffered the pestilence．The survivors，even having no learning and no intelligence，would come to the key position by virtue of their strong build，“because triumphant health in the general rout of constitutions is a kind of power in itself”．［6］60Such descriptions objectively pro-duce an effect serving the colonialist expansion．European colo-nizers claim that they will save African people from the black-ness．The image of Africa must be blackened so that it turns out the necessity of colonialism，in the meantime，it may vindicate the European colonizers．The native African people are inferior and uncultivated，without the image of entire person．They are“simple”people like savages or beasts．For example，when Marlow goes to seek Kurtz，on the way he sees“a black figure stood up，strode on long black legs，waving long black arms，across the glow．It had horns—antelope horns…it looked fiendlike enough”．［6］198The sound from the African，to Marlow’s mind，is not voice of hu-man language at all．They have no thought and judgment．They are servants to the European colonizers．Belief and ethic of the colonized races are imbued with wickedness，inducing the be-witching power to the white people．When Kurtz was beyond cure by the bewitching power，his companies would like to take him to the central station but he silently climbed back to attend the reli-—54—LITERATURE Liu Yanshi/The Formation of the“Other”Image：DeconstructiveReading of J．Conrad’s Heart of Darknessgious ritual held by the black．When in control of the infinite power，Kurtz by himself pro-duces an evidence of the extreme degradation of human nature and the blackest depth of heart．Such depth is so black that Kurtz himself feels horrible．“I saw on that ivory face the expres-sion of somber pride，of ruthless power，of craven terror—of an intense and hopeless despair”．［6］210He cried out twice on the edge of death，“The horror！The horror！”which shows Kurtz’s response to himself and the blackness of the colonizer’s heart．The colonizers come to Asia and Africa to colonize the native there in the name of“to help them promote the civiliza-tion”，however，they always judge everything from the European eyes and their outlook of values．All the native residents are the embodiment of barbarousness and ignorance，and thus they can-not truly become the civilized by“education”．The process of “civilization”is simply one history of the brutal plundering to the uncultivated underdeveloped areas for the European colonizers in virtue of their material superiority．In Hear of Darkness，the Eu-ropean colonizers are situated in Africa with guns and canons but they come out with plentiful ivory．In the novel，the black people are closely in harmony with the nature but the white people are the inharmonious“alternative”．The British adventurous story like Heart of Darkness trans-fers to the young men in the Victorian period information：they are expected to gain rights，wealth and position from the British colonies．Thus they are input with an image of self－confident male colonizer to preserve the concept of“the excellent white race”and called to maintain the ideal of“serving the people”combining the honour of Christianity with patriotism．In context of such times，most of the British people are crazy“patriots”．In lines of this sort of adventurous story，for instance，Heart of Darkness，Conrad at times exposes his self－arrogance as a British citizen，which is the case of point．Conrad consciously or unconsciously shows his idea and atti-tude towards the colonizer’s violence in this novel，Heart of Darkness，but he is a westerner above all．His growth and educa-tion cause him inevitably influenced by the West colonial dis-course．He has no choice but to gaze the colony from the aspect of the westerner．In Conrad’s heart，for the Oriental far behind the Occidental in social and economical development，he pro-duces superiority universally acknowledged in the westerners．But he isn’t aware that he is suspected to have delineation of ra-cial discrimination or disdain［7］222．Conrad is referred to as“a genius writer”by Albe，when uttering the“other”，he utters “self”as well．Ⅴ．ConclusionThe novelette，Heart of Darkness，on the one hand，refers to Conrad himself，on the other hand，alludes to the deficiency of human nature．The western civilization can be clearly gazed outside the West．When Marlow points to the land on both sides of the Thames River，he says，“this also has been one of the black places of the earth”．［6］8At first we may not understand his meaning，but when the colonies as the“other”is used to test the western civilization，its“blackness”all of a sudden appears．In fact，Conrad makes the most of the“other”to shed light on the westerners themselves and secrets in their hearts．When he takes advantage of the“other”，“self”of the colonizer is prominent to the audiences．Just as Pageaux said，“I gaze the“other”，the image of the“other”also transmit some image of“I”，a person of gazing，uttering and writing”［5］4．【References】［1］赵启光．康拉德小说选———译本序［M］．袁家骅，译．上海译文出版社，1985．［2］Poupard，Dennis．1984．Twentieth－Century Literary Criti-cism（Vol．13）［M］．Detroit：Gale Research Company．［3］Said，Edward W．1978．Orientalism［M］．London and Henley：Routledge＆Kegan Paul Ltd．［4］Selden，R．et al．A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Liter-ary Theory（4th edition）［M］．外语教学与研究出版社，2004．［5］（法）达尼埃尔－亨利·巴柔．从文化形象到集体想象物［C］//孟华．比较文学形象学．北京大学出版社，2001．［6］Conrad，Joseph．Heart of Darkness［M］．黄雨石，译．人民文学出版社，2002．［7］（英）巴特·吉尔伯特．后殖民理论：语境/实践/政治［M］．陈仲丹，译．南京大学出版社，2001．从康拉德的《黑暗的心》解读“他者”形象的建构刘彦仕（四川文理学院外语系，四川达州635000）［摘要］后现代语境理论强调差异，反对同一，东方被看做“他者”，是西方的对立面。