重讀《美國牧歌》：一個「後九一一」視角

Rereading American Pastoral: A Post-9/11 Perspective

本文從「後九一一」（post-9／11）視角出發，探討羅斯（Philip Roth）的《美國牧歌》（American Pastoral）中美國國家神話及其「去神話化」的過程如何以超越歷史性的方式參與到「九一一」文學研究的話語建構之中。小說出版於二十世紀九〇年代末，講述了二十世紀六〇年代末至七〇年代初一位猶太裔「美國亞當」利沃夫（Seymour Levov）被女兒／本土恐怖分子梅里（Merry Levov）的炸彈逐出美式伊甸園的故事。此一「去神話化」（demythologizing）的時刻和本土恐怖分子的生成以曲折的隱喻方式對九一一事件進行了預言式言說，弔詭地預觀了新世紀初飛機撞進雙子塔樓那一刻實在界的綻出。《美國牧歌》因此不妨作一新解：這是一部「前九一一」小說（pre-9／11 novel），即創作於2001年9月11日之前卻探討九一一事件之根源及後果的小說。但這並非意味著羅斯具有神秘的預言能力，而是證明了一個知道如何深刻且真實地反映最為個人的經驗的創作者，將同樣深徹地洞悉超個人領域。以後見之明反觀，我們不僅能看到羅斯對九一一事件之根源──中空的美國意識形態神話──所預作的批判，也能感受文學超時空、超歷史的時代共振，並在這種反觀中得以確認，以文學想象反思九一一恐怖襲擊事件的「共享輻」絕非始於日曆上的那一天。

From a post-9/11 perspective, this article explores how the American Myth and its process of demythologization in Philip Roth’s American Pastoral contribute to the discursive construction of 9/11 literature studies in a transhistorical way. Published in the late 1990s, the novel tells the story of Seymour Levov, a Jewish“American Adam”who is expelled from the American Garden of Eden by his daughter, Merry Levov, an American terrorist responsible for a bombing in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This moment of demythologization and the creation of a domestic terrorist within the family serve as a twisted metaphorical prophecy of the events of September 11, paradoxically foreshadowing the emergence of the realm of the Real in the 21st century when the planes crashed into the Twin Towers. American Pastoral may therefore be interpreted in a new way: as a“pre-9/11 novel,”i.e., a novel written before September 11, 2001, but one that explores the roots and consequences of the event. This does not suggest that Roth possessed mystical prophetic abilities; rather, it demonstrates his capacity as a novelist to reflect deeply and truthfully on personal experiences while also capturing a profound transpersonal realm. In hindsight, Roth’s work reveals not only a critique of the ideological hollowness of the American myth but also the resonance of literature that transcends chronotopes and historicism. Through this rereading, it becomes clear that the spectrum of 9/11 literature did not begin on September 11, 2001.