《等待野蛮人》中主奴关系的殖民体现

黑格尔的主奴关系范式是殖民文学和后殖民文学的重要理论。在库切的《等待野蛮人》中,这一理论得到充分的体现。以乔尔上校的第三局为代表的帝国在非洲大陆以绝对主人自居,行使至高无上的统治权,对土著居民施加身体暴力和心理暴力。而作为奴隶的被殖民者完全没有自己的话语权和决定权,他们的命运掌握在主人的手中。他们只能听天由命,以沉默面对剥削和压迫。但在深层意义上,这种不平等的主奴关系的后果是同构式压迫,殖民者和被殖民者、主人和奴隶都无法逃避它所带来的异化和心理压力。

Colonial Presentation of Master/Slave Pattern in Waiting for the Barbarians

Hagel’s master/slave pattern is one of the most prevalent theories in colonial literature and post-colonial literature,and it is well illustrated in Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians.Colonel Joll,the spokesman for the imperial Third Bureau,acts as the absolute master to the native Africans by treating them with physical and mental violence.The colonized,on the other hand,deprived of the right to speak and decide,have no choice but to live with brutal exploitation and oppression.However,from the view of the deep meaning,we may not fail to notice that this unequal relationship between the master and the slave entails the isomorphic oppression for both the colonizers and the colonized,both of whom can not run away from its alienation and mental stress.