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本文是一篇英语文学论文，笔者认为《变形记》和《老浮云》中被疏远的母亲形象描绘了卡夫卡和残雪对“母亲”身份的关注。超越文化意义上的善良和伟大形象，从人性的角度表达母亲的邪恶本性，是残雪小说对卡夫卡小说在共时状态下的特定历史延续和演变。比较《变形记》和《老浮云》中异化的母亲形象，是残雪与卡夫卡比较研究的进一步拓展。两位作家对受父权制和现代性危机影响而疏远的母亲的描写，提醒我们更加关注母亲的身份和现代人的精神困境。

Chapter One Images of the Alienated Mothers  

1.1 The Mother of Indifference and Apathy in The Metamorphosis

Disparate from the absence of mothers in Kafka’s other works, the depiction of Gregor’s mother in The Metamorphosis, assuredly, is thorough and substantial. What impresses readers in The Metamorphosis is not only the fact that Gregor transformed into the monstrous vermin but also the reaction of his family after his metamorphosis, especially  the  coldness  and  selfishness  of  his  mother.  This  part  illustrates  Gregor’s mother’s indifference and apathy in terms of her silence, body language, and tone. 

Firstly,  human  silence  is  a  culturally  or  institutionally  coded  alternative  that systematically  carries  a  wide  variety  of  meanings. According  to  Baker,  silence  can express  many  different  individual  emotions,  such  as  “intimate  attraction,  emotional defense, embarrassment, joy, grief, sulking, a high state od arousal, withdrawal of love, hate,  and  disgust”(53).  Mrs.  Samsa’s  silence  in  face  of  Gregor’s  metamorphosis,  to some  degree,  reflects  the  change  of  her  emotional  attitude  to  her  son. The  first  time when  Mrs.  Samsa  becomes  silent  is  when  she  disagrees  with  Grete  that  they  shall remove the furniture out of Gregor’s room. Mrs. Samsa is not at all certain that they are doing Gregor a favor by removing the furniture and argues with Grete that what they are doing will make Gregor feel that he is abandoned in the empty room. His family seems to have given up all hope of his getting better. Opposite to her mother’s opinion, Grete,  who  has  become  accustomed  to  adopting  with  her  parents  the  role  of  the particularly well-qualified expert whenever Gregor’s affairs are being discussed, has noticed Gregor needs plenty of room to crawl around in and decides to remove all the furniture except the indispensable couch. Without persuading her daughter, Mrs. Samsa soon  changes  her  mind  and  helps  her  daughter  as  best  she  could  to  get  the  chest  of drawers out of the room in silence. According to Jesen, silence is “employed to register assent or dissent, favor, or disfavor. Perhaps the most frequent judgment announced by silence is assent— agreement with what has been said, with what exists, with the status quo”(255). Mrs. Samsa’s silence reveals her agreement to Grete that the room shall be empty enough for Gregor to crawl around, which is also a sign that she has given up hope of Gregor’s getting better. For another instance, when Grete tells her parents that they shall abandon Gregor, Mrs. Samsa, different from本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。