"觉"而未"醒":解读小说《觉醒》中的"觉醒"

美国女作家凯特.肖邦于1899年创作的小说《觉醒》通过描述女主人公艾德娜.庞蒂利埃的几个层面的“觉醒”,努力塑造了一位要求个人自由、敢于表达实现自身价值的愿望、敢于表达女性自我意识的“新女性”。然而,艾德娜的这些顿悟只能被看作是一种勇敢却痛苦的历程,远没有达到“醒”的目标。在寻求女性独立人格的过程中,她的许多梦想一个个地破灭,让她认识到,作为一位女性,现实中许多事情都超越了自己能够掌握的界限,她永远都不可能成为她自己,最终迫使她彻底放弃自己的所求。作为一个创作和思想观念均先于时代的“新女性作家”,凯特.肖邦错误地选择了《觉醒》创作主题的时机,她的关于女性主体意识的探究是她同时代的人们无法给出满意答案的,也是她自己无法获得答案的。

"Awakening" Is Not "Awaken": The Interpretations of "Awakenings" in The Awakening

Kate Chopin's 1899 The Awakening is an "awakening" novel which describes Edna Pontellier's several awakenings,and what distinguishes Edna as a New Woman is her insistence upon development and realization of her self.However,The Awakening is a novel of awakening process but not program.There are lots of confinements on Edna's awakenings,thus eventually,these awakenings are not "awaken" at all.Edna awakens to the horrible knowledge that she can never,because she is female,be her own person.She realizes that her self-realization includes painful awareness of the limitations of the self.As a New Women writer,a woman far ahead of her time,Kate Chopin composed The Awakening at the wrong time: when neither reviewers nor Kate Chopin herself were ready for the questions she asked.