摘要
《白鲸》(Moby-Dick,1850)记叙了搜捕神秘白鲸的故事。因被这条白鲸刈掉一条腿,亚哈船长寻遍世界所有海域,想要杀掉这条他所痛恨的鲸鱼。亚哈那条残缺的腿是一个无法疗愈的记号,昭示着他作为人的有限性。他与白鲸莫比·迪克的交锋让自己遍体鳞伤,被一种非人类的力量击败;他残缺的身体揭示了人与非人之间的不可通约性,两者在形式与力量上差异巨大。亚哈怒不可遏,一心复仇。
Moby-Dick centers on Captain Ahab’s quest for revenge against a fabled white whale.As an archetypal battle between man and beast,the novel chronicles a limit experience,an encounter with the powers of nature that intersect typologically with intimations of an ultimate being.As the crew of the Pequod travel far into the fluidic wilderness of the ocean,they witness Ahab’s rage against the whale as ultimately a rage against the God behind the whale.The narrative of this hunt,however,is framed by the concept of repentance,introduced by the sermon of Father Mapple in Chapter 9.A former whaler,Mapple testifies to his own encounter with ultimacy through the biblical story of Jonah,comparing himself to the prophet who was temporarily swallowed by a whale.Mapple’s recognition of being overtaken by the divine leads to his repentance—a conversion that transforms his identity in interaction with the divine.While his former self is lost to the ultimate,a new being emerges,the Father Mapple who is rescued by God and represents God’s word to others.Mapple’s example serves as the possibility rejected by Ahab,who refuses to relinquish his resentful self or repent into new existence.Intent on clashing with ultimacy instead of yielding to it ensures a distorted understanding of the divine,leading to the destruction of both Ahab and his witness to the divine.Repentance mediates between human finitude and ultimacy in a way that deflects trauma and enables mutually transformative contact.
作者
陈影(译)
Sharon KIM;CHEN Ying(Judson University,USA;School of Foreign Languages,Renmin University of China)
出处
《基督教文化学刊》
2020年第2期25-51,共27页
Journal for the Study of Christian Culture
作者简介
金容希,美国贾德森大学英语系教授,Email:skim@judsonu.edu;陈影,中国人民大学外国语学院副教授,Email:rucchenying@126.com
