《红字》中的“问题化”母性及其政治隐喻

在霍桑生活的时代，欧洲的女性教育与女性义务规约均基于女性未来的母亲身份，美国社会同样强调母亲在家庭和社会中的关键作用。通过回溯《红字》主要情节的历史背景发现，霍桑一方面继承了传统的母性观，另一方面突出了白兰的“问题化”母性，并以此为依托，通过强调两代人之间的巨大差异，试图挑战美国与英国的文化政治血缘联系，建立移民者后代与美洲大陆的新地缘关联，从而帮助构建美国人的独立民族身份。

The Problematized Motherhood and Its Political Metaphor in The Scarlet Letter

In the 19th century, the Europeans educated and regulated women based on their identity as expectant mothers. Likewise, the Americans also emphasized the significance of maternity for both domestic families and the whole society. Through dating back to the historical background of the plot, this paper believes that Hawthorne on the one hand inherits the traditional ideas concerning motherhood while on the other highlights the “problematized” motherhood. By emphasizing the great distinction between two generations, Hawthorne tries to deny the English ancestry of the Americans and build their geographical affinity with the American land, consequently contributing to establish the independent national identity of the American people.