兴盛于19世纪中期的美国废奴文学为解放黑奴做出了巨大贡献。其中，斯托夫人的《汤姆叔叔的小屋》堪称废奴文学的标志性巅峰作品，小说塑造出汤姆叔叔正直良善、心怀悲悯的形象，深切地激发了广大民众对黑奴苦难境遇的同情，使解放黑奴的呼声日益高涨。如今，这部作品仍是美国文学与废奴题材领域的不朽经典，今天我们将继续为大家带来这部作品的精彩片段。

前言（节选自《汤姆叔叔的小屋》，人民文学出版社，2018）

《汤姆叔叔的小屋》的作者斯陀夫人对美国的蓄奴制所产生的把黑奴当成没有灵魂的牲畜肆意虐待和进行买卖的行为一向深恶痛绝。一八五〇年美国联邦议会又通过了《逃奴法案》，规定任何人不得收留逃奴，自由州的居民如协助逃奴，将受到法律的制裁。这一法律的通过无异于在美国全境以法律的形式承认了黑奴是奴隶主的私有财产，而当时相当一批北方的政界与宗教界的领袖竟然为这一法案辩护……这使得斯陀夫人更为愤怒。她认为只有不了解蓄奴制的真相及其残酷性的人才会为蓄奴制与《逃奴法案》进行辩护，于是决心通过文学的形式，把蓄奴制的种种骇人听闻的罪恶公之于世……

斯陀夫人是最适于担此重任的人……她在与蓄奴制仅一河之隔的辛辛那提生活了十八年之久，并且也去过南方，耳闻目睹了黑奴被奴隶主任意打骂和买卖，以致妻离子散、家破人亡的种种令人发指的惨状。斯陀夫人在自己家中收留过许多过往逃奴，也接触了大量逃到自由州获得了自由的黑人，听他们亲口讲述过在奴隶制下的痛苦遭遇。蓄奴制的酷刑与罪恶、形形色色的奴隶主、奴隶贩子、专以追捕逃奴为生的人的形象在她头脑中活灵活现；黑奴在蓄奴制下的生活和为逃离奴隶生活所作的英勇不屈的斗争也在她脑海中栩栩如生……无数日积月累深埋心中的事件和人物，在她决心创作一部鞭笞蓄奴制的作品时，便以不可阻挡之势喷涌而出，形成了我们今天读到的《汤姆叔叔的小屋》……

 

精彩片段

加载视频...

HAVE NOT MANY OF US, in the weary way of life, felt, in some hours, how far easier it were to die than to live?

The martyr, when faced even by a death of bodily anguish and horror, finds in the very terror of his doom a strong stimulant and tonic. There is a vivid excitement, a thrill and fervour, which may carry through any crisis of suffering that is the birth-hour of eternal glory and rest.

But to live, to wear on day after day of mean, bitter, low, harassing servitude, every nerve dampened and depressed, every power of feeling gradually smothered -- this long and wasting heart-martyrdom, this slow, daily bleeding away of the inward life, drop by drop, hour after hour -- this is the true searching test of what there may be in man or woman.

When Tom stood face to face with his persecutor, and heard his threats, and thought in his very soul that his hour was come, his heart swelled bravely in him, and he thought he could bear torture and fire, bear anything, with the vision of Jesus and heaven just a step beyond; but when he was gone, and the present excitement passed off, came back the pain of his bruised and weary limbs, came back the sense of his utterly degraded, hopeless, forlorn estate; and the day passed wearily enough.

 

词汇学习

martyr  n. 殉道者，烈士；乞怜者；（因疾病或困难）长期受苦者

anguish  v. & n. 极度痛苦

doom  n. 厄运，劫数

    vt. 注定，命定

bleed  vi. 出血，流血

bruise  vt. 使……受挫伤；打青

      n. 伤痕，擦痕，青肿

（单词注释来自有道词典）

本书遴选的三部奴隶叙事在国际学界得到广泛教学与持续研究，它们分别是由“英国黑人之父”奥拉达·艾奎亚诺、美国杰出的非裔领袖费雷德里克·道格拉斯以及汤姆叔叔的原型乔赛亚·亨森撰写的自传。该书从身份杂糅、叙述、抗议文学等角度对三部叙事进行讨论。这种译、研并重的做法，一定程度上将作为一种历史还原的作品本身与现代阐释有效结合起来，可作为英美文学尤其是黑人文学研究人员的参考用书。

This book examines transformations in the face of uneven developments in the racial, ethnic, gender and class structure of American society. Offering provocative new readings of Mark Twain, Henry James, William Dean Howells, Helen Hunt Jackson, Albion Tourgee and others, Christine Holbo explores the transformation of the novel’s distinctive modes of social knowledge in relation to developments in art, philosophy, law, politics, and moral theory. This study shows how violence, prejudice, and exclusion haunted the celebratory literatures of national equality, but it demonstrates as well the way novelists’ representation of the difficulty of achieving equality before the law helped Americans articulate the need for a more robust concept of social justice.

 

文案策划及录音：图书借阅部 李圣昭

编辑：宣传策划小组 郭琳