Crisis and Redemption – Urban Space Research in Albee's Drama [危机与救赎 –阿尔比戏剧中的城市空间研究], Doctoral dissertation, English Language and Literature, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China 2018 [application of Fromm's theories to art].

  • 作为20世纪最杰出的戏剧家之一,爱德华•阿尔比三次斩获普利策最佳戏剧奖,两次托尼最佳戏剧奖,被认为是继尤金•奥尼尔、田纳西•威廉姆斯、阿瑟•米勒之后,美国最具影响力的作家。阿尔比的创作起步于20世纪50年代,正逢美国社会转型期,政治格局风云诡变——麦卡锡主义肆虐,城市急剧扩张——社会矛盾突出,经济发展过热——消费主义观念盛行,各类社会危机凸显,民众深受同时期>过度消费<、>超前消费<的享乐主义思想影响,沉浸在虚幻的>美国梦<泡影中。阿尔比准确把握时代脉搏,创新性地将大量的城市意象融入到了作品之中,借城市景观展现人物情感,通过空间媒介表现戏剧冲突,力求实现对于城市生活场景的高度还原,客观地展现都市人的生活与精神状态。论文从阿尔比作品中大量的城市意象着手,研究独特的城市空间体系对于民众实现自我救赎、重构社会关系、化解城市危机等问题的重要作用。笔者根据阿尔比不同作品中的城市形象特征和主题,从城市空间的视角构建论文框架,分别从>边缘<城市、>拟像<城市、>镜像<城市和>理性<城市四个方面讨论剧中人物在城市空间的生存状态和剧作家城市表征的具体手法,探讨剧作家通过14部戏剧所传达出的对现代城市危机的担忧和拯救城市的愿望。绪论部分对于阿尔比的生平经历、写作背景、创作风格、作品特点进行了归纳,对于城市空间理论进行了梳理,对阿尔比研究的国内外现状进行了综述,对论文的框架进行了阐释。本研究结合亨利•列斐伏尔与爱德华•索亚的空间理论,辅之以大卫•哈维、齐美尔、凯文•林奇等人的城市理论,以及拉康的镜像理论与弗洛姆的异化理论,探讨了阿尔比作品中的角色与个人空间、家庭空间、社会空间之间复杂的对抗模式,揭示了城市生活中的种种危机,还原了阿尔比本人、以及剧中人物实现自我救赎、家庭救赎和社会救赎的心路历程。第一章>边缘<城市主要以阿尔比的4部戏剧为核心,从分析戏剧人物的生存状态入手,探讨这些群体在城市空间被挤压的边缘处境。论文首先从挖掘历史背景入手,探讨经济、社会、政治等因素对城市发展和城市人生活的影响。20世纪60年代末美国城市暴动和70年代初的全球经济衰退,给美国社会带来了重重危机。本章分别从家庭危机、社会危机、种族危机、自然危机的角度对阿尔比的4部作品进行分析。《沙箱》中现代人伦理缺失,使得家庭危机凸显。年事已高的姥姥被安排在家中的炉子下面居住,没有自由的个人空间,死时只有沙箱般大小的地方可以容纳自己,女儿与女婿对于她几乎疯狂的虐待是20世纪中期美国社会家庭观念淡薄,家庭成员互相割裂的体现。《贝西之死》中女歌手贝西因车祸被紧急送往医院,但因为其黑人身份被医院拒绝在外,最后惨死于院外。该剧再现了黑人群体在日常生活之中遭遇的不公正对待,突出了他们的无助与无望之感,也反映美国随着城市化进程的加快,种族危机四伏的现状。《美国梦》中大量社团组织的出现未能有效解决社会问题,新晋的会长竟然公开允许人口买卖,鼓励遗弃年迈的老人。该剧揭露了当时美国社会价值观扭曲、社会秩序混乱,进而引发社会危机蔓延的事实。《山羊》中看似光鲜靓丽的>世界之城<的计划背后,是对于传统自然平衡的破坏和人的丑陋欲望的真实揭露。主人公马丁疏离妻子,移情于山羊,不但毁灭了家庭,还是对自然规律与法则的挑战,从而引发了自然危机。在一幅幅动态的城市生活画面中,所有的危机都被具象化,成为了展示人物形象、推动戏剧情节发展的关键要素。通过对于具体生活空间进行还原,利用边缘化人物的塑造,凸显危机的严重,阿尔比成功将其经历的危机四伏的城市空间还原到了舞台之上,为其作品增添了更为丰富的内涵。第二章通过对阿尔比3部戏剧作品的分析,探讨了剧作家如何通过>拟像<模式,创设戏剧场景,向观众展示人、物、事件、场景背后的潜在联系。阿尔比凭借戏剧艺术手段有力地表达城市危机之主题,在《微妙的平衡》中,阿尔比借助舞台结构空间模拟了中产阶级家庭的生活画面,以房间为媒介,通过空间力量对抗和博弈,实现了对主要人物内心世界的揭露,展示了人际关系的异化和生存危机。《海景》中大片的沙丘和海滩从表面来看是对于自然环境的另一种重构,但随着大海中一对会说话的蜥蜴的出现,自然环境已悄然演化成社会空间的一个模拟体,在与人类的互动过程中,让人类感悟到人对自然的入侵,进而导致了对自然空间的破坏,形成了现代生态危机。在《迪比克来的女士》中,通过对于>死亡场景<的模拟,阿尔比从全新的角度对于普通中产阶级人群的生活场景进行了再现,>死亡天使<的到来激起了主人公对于未知状态的恐惧,揭示了中产阶级日益焦虑的精神危机。在这3部作品中,>拟像<城市对于城市场景进行了创新性的还原,通过戏剧结构空间的展现、自然空间的加入、生活空间的融合以及异质空间的冲突,阿尔比全方位呈现了主要角色在面对陌生环境的心理转变,以及各个角色在日常生活中的隔离状态,再现了多重的城市危机。第三章>镜像<城市中,笔者借助于拉康的>镜像<理论来分析阿尔比用以确证自我身份的>他者<形象和>他者<场景,探讨阿尔比如何通过戏剧场景建构、戏剧人物塑造实现从>将镜子中的自我完全等同于自我<的镜像阶段到>将镜中的自我同自我完全分开<的后镜像阶段的过渡。阿尔比本人在这一过程中找回了真实的自我,实现了个人的救赎。《婴儿游戏》中,自始至终都没有出现的婴儿象征了阿尔比本人,也再现了他在刚出生时被收养的经历,伊甸园式的布景和在台上奔跑的裸体儿童等>他者<场景有效地在过去、现在与未来之间架起了桥梁,实现了对于阿尔比童年记忆>空白<状态的再现,也折射出其由于被遗弃所经历的自我意识的缺失。《碎片》中,八位连名字都没有的角色在舞台上分享了各式各样的故事,这些>他者<用对话的形式讲述了阿尔比真实、细碎的生活经历,也以旁观者的角度重新审视了阿尔比在生活中做出的诸多选择,这正体现了剧作家本人利用>他者<的叙述来不断充实自我身份的重要阶段。《三个高个子女人》中,阿尔比将母亲以>他者<形象进行展示,让她和青年时期的自己、中年时期的自己以及阿尔比本人的化身在同一个房间相遇。他们超越时空的限制实现了对话,也再现了母亲眼中的阿尔比,实现了阿尔比自我身份的重新建构。在>镜像<城市中,阿尔比塑造了位于真实与想象之间的城市空间,将>他者<形象和场景融入到了戏剧舞台之上,突出了其本人对于自我身份的反思。通过有意识地将个人角色置入戏剧情境、生活经历融入戏剧情节,阿尔比成功与真实的生活空间融为一体,他在完成关于自我同一性和整体性的身份认同之余也实现了个人意义上的救赎。第四章>理性<城市以阿尔比的4部作品为核心,集中呈现了异化的个人空间、家庭空间、社会空间,还原了位于异化空间的主要角色从迷茫到顿悟、从分裂到统一、从隔离到沟通的心路历程。《三臂人》中,三臂人>厌倦享乐<,依靠>第三只手臂<外出演讲获得金钱,他将自已封闭于狭隘的、异化的个人空间之中,拒绝与外界沟通,分裂出的第三只手臂象征了他迷茫与割裂的生活状态。《谁?》中的玛莎希望丈夫乔治继承她父亲校长的职位,不惜羞辱乔治无能,使得夫妻关系紧张,反映出权力欲望所导致的人际关系异化。乔治和玛莎在和来宾进行游戏的同时,依靠幻想的家庭空间逃避现实,捏造了根本不存在的孩子,追逐利益,正反映了中产阶级精神危机。《在家在动物园》中的>动物园<正是整个异化的社会空间的象征,主人公彼得来自中产阶级上层社会,他用>理智而非感情来处理日常或工作事物<。彼得与妻子安娜貌合神离,与流浪汉杰瑞格格不入,这是对异化主题的最好诠释。《欲望花园》中的詹妮在图丝太太租借的房屋中出卖身体挣取金钱,与丈夫理查在装修豪华的家中心安理得地挥霍着她的>劳动成果<。在日常生活中,他们与社区里的其他家庭相互隐瞒幕后丑陋的性交易,用精心打理的>花园<来隐藏自己的犯罪行为,为了金钱而牺牲自尊和道德,从个人、家庭到社会空间层面折射出一个严重异化的时代。事实上,>危机与救赎<主题一直贯穿于阿尔比的戏剧之中,例如在《三个高个子女人》中,剧作者既通过三个不同年龄段女人之间的矛盾与冲突影射现实生活中阿尔比与继母关系的危机,同时又表现出剧作者希望与母亲和解,弥补对母亲造成的伤害,从而达到心灵上救赎的愿望。这种>危机与救赎<的主题在第四章所讨论的作品中更显突出。>三臂人<在第三只手臂从消失到再出现的过程之中逐渐顿悟,恢复了理性,重新融入了周围的社会,完成了个人身份的认知与重拾,达到了自我的救赎;乔治通过杀死幻想中的婴儿将玛莎从虚幻带入现实,从而拯救了濒临破碎的家庭。《在家在动物园》中杰瑞冲向了彼得举起的匕首,跨越与彼得的>精神栅栏<,以死亡为代价打破了人与人之间的隔膜,目的是拯救冷漠无情的异化社会。《欲望花园》中的杰克,借助于重生,以换来全社会的道德良知。显见,在阿尔比作品中,>危机与救赎<主题始终相连,在某种意义上,相互依存,共同推进了戏剧情节的发展,有力地表达了作者的社会忧患意识。阿尔比以在边缘城市空间中生存的边缘化人物形象展示了人物的生存困境,用戏剧舞台结构空间模拟了真实的城市生活场景,揭露了工业文明危机的迷雾之中,城市的家庭、种族、社会、自然危机,体现了中产阶级群体在城市中遭遇的生存危机和精神困惑。在应对日益严峻的城市危机之时,在遭遇创作瓶颈的困境之下,阿尔比在戏剧作品中巧妙加入了>他者<场景、>他者<身份,再现了>他者<眼中的自我形象,并树立了明确的自我意识,在完成身份重拾的过程中也以更为经典的作品回应了大众的质疑,实现了个人意义上的救赎;与此同时,剧作中的主要角色通过游戏、暴力冲突、>戏中戏<等呈现方式打破了自我隔绝的异化状态,他们在重拾个人身份、定位家庭位置、融入社会关系的动态过程中,完成了真实、理性的生活状态的回归,也实现了个人、家庭、社会以及灵魂层面的救赎,展现了阿尔比通过戏剧创作来改变现实的良好愿景。阿尔比通过城市书写和戏剧呈现,不仅为剧中人物突破精神桎梏、定位个人身份、实现自我价值提供了解决方案,同时为当今生活在繁忙都市中的每个人提供了精神食粮。
  • Edward Albee, winner of Pulitzer Prizes (three times) and Tony Awards (twice), is considered as one of the most outstanding American playwrights in the 20th century after Eugene O’Neil, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. His first play came out in the 1950s, when the American society was in the process of social transformation, with prevailing McCarthyism, quick urbanization and expanding consumerism, all of which were posing a great threat on the psychological and social life of Americans. They were deeply trapped in the idea of >premature consumption< and >excessive consumption<, indulged in the illusion of their >American Dream<. It’s Albee who picked a deep insight into these crises and tried to present them in his works to guide people out of the crises. His innovative writing is highly appreciated: integrating city images into his works to represent social backgrounds, using stage scenes to express the characters’ emotions, employing space occupation to illustrate the conflicts among characters. By these means, he managed to construct a totally new reality before the audience to reflect a real living and spiritual state of the city dwellers. Based on the features of city images and the themes of different Albee’s works, the author will discuss, from the view of urban space, the four aspects of >Marginalized City<, >Simulated City<, >Mirrored City< and >Rationalized City< to demonstrate people’s living states and Albee’s representation of urban space. Through the interpretation of 14 works, this dissertation tries to convey Albee’s worries about the city crises and his wishes to save the city. In the introduction, the generalization is provided, firstly, of the playwright’s life experiences, writing background, writing style and writing features. After that, the urban space theories and the researches on Edward Albee from home and abroad are summarized, together with an introduction of the framework of this dissertation. This research mainly uses the space theories of Lefebvre and Edward W. Soja, combined with the urban theories from David Harvey, George Simmel and Kevin Lynch, the mirror-image theory of Lacan and the alienation theory of Fromm, to explore the complex conflicting patterns among the individual space, the family space and the social space. Meanwhile, the dissertation reveals the social crises emerging in the city life and illustrates the redemption processes of Albee himself and characters in the plays. The first part explores the >Marginalized City<, which focuses on four of Albee’s plays. With the analysis of the drama characters’ living states accomplished, the marginalized situation which the characters are faced with is revealed. By exploring the historical background of the society, this part tries to present the influences of economy, society and politics on the city development and people’s living state. The American urban riots during the 1960s and the economic recession during the 1970s brought about severe crises to the American society. This part analyzes four works of Albee from the aspects of family crisis, social crisis, racial crisis and natural crisis. In >The Sandbox<, the family crisis is clearly revealed by the lack of ethics. The old grandmother is forced to live under the stove, who curls up in a small place when she dies. Her daughter and son-in-law’s maltreatments to her show the weak emotional relation and the separation among the family members. In >The Death of Bessie Smith<, the woman singer is not allowed to enter the hospital because of her skin color, representing the unfair treatment that the black people suffer in daily life and their serious living situation in contrast to the rapid development of urbanization. It can be inferred from this play that with the speeding up of the American urbanization, the racial crises are becoming more and more serious. In >The American Dream< a large number of associations fail to solve social problems effectively. The new president permits the purchase of human beings and even encourages the abandonment of the elderly, revealing the twisted social values and social disorders which then trigger the spread of social crisis. In >The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?<, the destruction of natural balance and the disclosure of the horrible desires are hidden behind the wonderful project of >World City<. The main character Martin shifts his love to the goat. The twisted love not only ruins his family but also challenges the natural laws, which eventually leads to the natural crisis. Through the description of social life, all crises are embodied, which later become the essential factors to push forward the plot and show the characters’ images. By means of creating certain images of marginalized characters and restoring the social space, Albee performs the city space successfully, adding more fruitful connotations to his works at the same time. In the second part of >Simulated City<, through analyzing Albee’s 3 works, the author discusses how Albee uses the >simulated< model to create the stage scenes and show the potential links among people, objects, events and scenes to the audience. By means of employing theatrical arts, Albee expresses the theme of urban crisis forcibly. In >A Delicate Balance<< through the use of theatrical stage structure space, Albee simulates the living state of the middle class, and succeeds in revealing the main roles’ inner mind and the alienation and subsistence crises of human relation. In Seascape, the large area of sand and beach seems to be the reconstruction of nature. However, with the appearance of two talking lizards, the nature scene becomes the simulation of social space. In the process of communicating with human beings, the lizards make people realize their invasion into nature which as a result, causes the ecological crisis. In >The Lady from Dubuque<, Albee tries to represent the living scene of the middle class by means of simulating the death scene. The arrival of the death angel stimulates the horror of characters, which reveals their fear towards the unknown and uncontrolled situation. Meanwhile, the increasingly serious spiritual crisis is clearly presented. In these three works, the simulated city restores the city environment innovatively. Through performing the theatrical stage structure space, adding the natural space, mixing the living space and conflicting with the heterogeneous space, Albee fully shows the psychological transformation of main characters when they are confronted with unfamiliar environment and their isolated state in their daily life, through all of which multiple urban crises are represented. In the third part of >Mirrored City<, the author uses Lacan’s >mirror-image theory< to analyze Albee’s >The Other< image and >The Other< scenes, which are used to confirm Albee’s own identity. Through discussing Albee’s construction of dramatic scenes and dramatic roles, we present the process of Albee’s transformation from the >mirror stage<, >equal the ego in the mirror to himself< to the >post mirror stage<, >separate the ego in the mirror from himself entirely<. Albee returns to the real ego and completes his personal redemption. In >The Play About the Baby<, the missing baby is Albee himself, which implies Albee’s adoption experience. The scenes of the Garden of Eden and the running children without clothes build the bridge between the past and present, which reflect Albee’s blank memory in the childhood and his loss of self-consciousness due to the adoption experience. In Fragments, eight nameless characters share their stories on stage, which Albee’s real and subtle life experiences are demonstrated. These >Others< use the form of dialogue to illustrate Albee’s real life experiences and review Albee’s choices objectively, which also shows the playwright’s method of using others’ dialogues to fulfill his identity. In Three Tall Women, Albee changes his mother’s image into >The Other<, and lets her come across the young self, middle-aged self and her son in the same room. Regardless of time and space, they succeed in communicating with each other. From his mother’s eyes, Albee’s personal image is represented, and his own identity is constructed. In >Mirror City<, Albee builds the urban space between the real and the imagined, and integrates >The Other< image and >The Other< scene into the drama stage, which emphasizes his reflection on his own identity. Through adding his personal role to the play and his own life experiences to the plot consciously, Albee fits into the real living scene, and thus accomplishes his personal redemption. In the last part of >Rationalized City<, the author concentrates on Albee’s four works, which mainly perform the alienated individual space, family space and social space, and restore the main roles’ psychological processes from being lost to enlightened, from separated to united and from isolated to related. In >The Man Who Had Three Arms<, the main character hates the life of indulgence, so he uses his alienated body to make money. He isolates himself in the narrow and alienated space and refuses to communicate with other people. The >third arm< symbolizes his lost and isolated state. In >Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?< Marsha wants her husband George to inherit her father’s presidential position, thus she insults George without mercy, which makes their martial relation become intense. When playing games with the guests, Marsha and George use imagined family space to escape from the reality. They fake the fact of having a baby, which further reflects the spiritual crisis of the middle class. In >At Home at the Zoo< the zoo is the symbol of the whole alienated social space. Peter, who comes from upper class society, deals with everything around him carefully. He isolates from his wife Anna and tramp Jerry, which is the best interpretation of the alienation theme. In >Everything in the Garden<, Jenny earns money in an illegal way and squanders her money with her husband. In everyday life, Jenny and her husband conceal their sex trade from the other families in the community, and they use the garden to hide their criminal behaviors. They lose their self-esteem and morality to the purpose of making more money, which reflects a seriously alienated age from a personal, family and social level. Actually, the theme of >Crisis and Redemption< constantly appears in Albee’s works. In >Three Tall Women<, Albee uses the conflicts among three women of different ages to reflect the crisis between his mother and him, as well as his wishes to compromise with his mother and to make up for the hurt that he brought to his mother, through which he can accomplish his redemption. Meanwhile, the theme of >Crisis and Redemption< is much more obvious in the works mentioned in Chapter 4. The man with three arms gradually experiences the epiphany in the disappearance and reappearance of the >third arm<, and completes the recognition and regain of his personal identity. He gets involved into the society and finally achieves the goal of self-redemption. Through killing the illusory baby, George drags Marsha out of the imagined space, and he saves the whole family. In >At Home at the Zoo<, Jerry risks his life and rushes to the knife held by Peter and breaks the isolation between human beings. Jerry’s purpose is to save the indifferent and alienated society. In >Everything in the Garden<, through rebirthing, Jack calls for the moral conscience of the whole society. Obviously, the theme of >Crisis and Redemption< is closely connected with Albee’s works. They coexist with each other and push forward the plot jointly, and they further help express Albee’s concern over the society. To sum up, Albee, as a playwright, succeeded in using the marginalized people appearing in the marginalized city to represent people’s living dilemma, and employing the theatrical stage structure space to simulate the real urban life so as to reveal the family crisis, racial crisis and natural crisis appearing in the background of the industrial civilization. Undoubtedly, his works further reflect the survival predicaments and spiritual confusions which the middle class people encounter in their daily life. When confronted with increasingly serious city crises and writing dilemma, Albee adds >The Other< scene and >The Other< identity to the play, and represents his image in the eyes of >The Other<, through which, he re-builds clear self-consciousness, accomplishes more classical works and finally realizes his own redemption. Meanwhile, the main roles in his plays try to break the alienated state by using the form of games, violent confrontations as well as >play in the play<. Besides, these roles finally return to real and rational lives, thus realizing their personal, family and social redemption in the process of finding their personal identity, locating the correct family position and integrating themselves into the social relations. That obviously conveys Albee’s strong wishes of making a change to the disappointing reality. Briefly speaking, it’s through city writing and theatrical performing that Albee not only provides a different way for people to break down their spiritual shackles, relocate their personal identities and realize their values, but also offers the spiritual nourishment to those living in busy cities today threatened with various crises. [Author’s translation]

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Metadaten
Author:Ruichang Wang
Document Type:Dissertations
Language:Chinese
Year of first Publication:2018
Release Date:2019/03/04
Format:no download and copy possible
IdNo:Wang_Ruijang_2018
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Dissertations / Dissertationen
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Dissertations / Dissertationen
Licence (German):
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