安吉拉·卡特：重述灰姑娘的故事

安吉拉·卡特（AngelaCarter，1940～1992）是一位英國女作家，出生于英國東南部港口城市伊斯特本，后搬至英國東北部的約克郡和外祖母共同生活。安吉拉·卡特青年時期在布里斯托大學攻讀中世紀文學，她精通法語、德語，也會說日語，到過美國、澳大利亞，也曾經(jīng)在日本居住過兩三年。她當過記者，曾給《衛(wèi)報》《獨立報》撰稿，也曾先后在英國謝菲爾德大學、美國布朗大學、澳大利亞阿德萊德大學和東安格利亞大學任駐校作家，日本作家石黑一雄就曾是她的學生。

安吉拉·卡特是個多產(chǎn)的作家，共出版了九部長篇小說，多個短篇小說集，并著有詩歌和文藝評論，代表作有長篇小說《影子舞》（ShadowDance，1966）、《魔幻玩具鋪》（TheMagicToyshop，1967）、《新夏娃的激情》（ThePassionofNewEve，1977）、《馬戲團之夜》（NightsattheCircus，1984）和短篇小說集《煙火》（Fireworks，1974）、《染血之室》（TheBloodyChamber，1979）、《黑色維納斯》（BlackVenus，1985）等。

安吉拉·卡特的寫作風格糅女性主義和魔幻現(xiàn)實主義于一體，書中不乏怪誕詭秘甚至有點殘酷恐怖的描寫，但反映的卻都是現(xiàn)實，或者說是一些我們未曾注意的現(xiàn)實。這一點在她根據(jù)童話故事改寫的一系列故事中表現(xiàn)得很明顯。下面我們就來看看安吉拉·卡特改寫的灰姑娘的故事，她一共改寫了三個版本，我們這里節(jié)選的是第二個版本。因為語言難度問題，節(jié)選時有所改動。

A burned child lived in the ashes. She looked like charcoal andashes because she lived in the ashes since her mother died and thehot ashes burned her so she was scarred. The burned child lived onthe hearth， covered in ashes， as if she were still mourning.

After her mother died and was buried， her father forgot the motherand forgot the child and married the woman who used to rake theashes， and that was why the child lived in the ashes， and there wasnobody to brush her hair， so it stuck out like a mat， nor to wipe the dirtoff her scarred face， and she had no heart to do it for herself， but sheraked the ashes and slept beside the little cat and got the burned bitsfrom the bottom of the pot to eat， scraping them out， sitting on thefloor， by herself in front of the fire， not as if she were human， becauseshe was still mourning.

Her mother was dead and buried， but felt great pain of love whenshe looked up through the earth and saw the burned child covered inashes.

“Milk the cow， burned child， and bring back all the milk，” said thestepmother， who used to rake the ashes and milk the cow， once upona time， but the burned child did all that， now.

The ghost of the mother went into the cow.

“Drink milk， grow fat，” said the mother”s ghost.

The burned child pulled on the udder and drank enough milkbefore she took the bucket back and nobody saw， and time passed， she drank milk every day， she grew fat， she grew breasts， she grew

There was a man the stepmother wanted and she asked him intothe kitchen to get his dinner， but she made the burned child cook it， although the stepmother did all the cooking before. After the burnedchild cooked the dinner the stepmother sent her off to milk the cow.

“I want that man for myself，” said the burned child to the cow.

The cow let down more milk， and more， and more， enough forthe girl to have a drink and wash her face and wash her hands. Whenshe washed her face， she washed the scars off and now she was notburned at all， but the cow was empty.

“Give your own milk， next time，” said the ghost of the mother insidethe cow. “Youve milked me dry.”

The little cat came by. The ghost of the mother went into the cat. “Your hair wants doing，” said the cat. “Lie down.”

The little cat combed her hair with its clever paws until the burnedchilds hair hung down nicely， but it had been so tangled that the catsclaws were all pulled out before it was finished.

“Comb your own hair， next time，” said the cat. “Youve maimedme.”

The burned child was clean and combed， but naked.

There was a bird sitting in the apple tree. The ghost of the motherleft the cat and went into the bird. The bird struck its own breast with itsbeak. Blood poured down on to the burned child under the tree. It ranover her shoulders and covered her front and covered her back. Whenthe bird had no more blood， the burned child got a red silk dress.

“Make your own dress， next time，” said the bird. “Im through withthat bloody business.” The burned child went into the kitchen to showherself to the man. She was not burned any more， but lovely. The manleft off looking at the stepmother and looked at the girl.

“Come home with me and let your stepmother stay and rake theashes，” he said to her and off they went. He gave her a house andmoney. She did all right.

“Now I can go to sleep，” said the ghost of the mother. “Noweverything is all right. ”

本文選自安吉拉卡特的短篇小說《掃灰娘，又名：母親的鬼魂》，小說一共包含了三個不同版本的灰姑娘的故事，第一個版本負責將原來的童話敲碎，它對原來的灰姑娘的故事提出了質(zhì)疑：為什么灰姑娘的父親任由繼母虐待灰姑娘？為什么灰姑娘只要樹枝做禮物？斑鳩到底代表了什么？同時補充了一些大家都忽略的細節(jié)，如繼母揮刀割掉自己女兒的腳趾和腳后跟時女兒的惶恐以及王子在幾次試穿之間沒有洗過鞋子，灰姑娘赤腳伸進血淋淋的鞋子時的恐懼與無奈等。

第二個版本就是這里節(jié)選的部分，這是一個相對完整的故事，但是人物情節(jié)都相對簡化了：在所有版本的灰姑娘故事中，父親的角色都是缺失的，所以這里就索性略去了;王子的角色也被簡化到一個男人，連姓名都沒有提及，我們只知道他應該很有錢，只知道他是灰姑娘和繼母，或者說還有灰姑娘的母親爭奪的目標;繼母的女兒們也被略去了，因為她們反正只是她們母親意志的傀儡;仙女教母也沒有了，取而代之的是母親的鬼魂，這樣似乎更解釋得通，因為我們都知道現(xiàn)實中是沒有仙女的，而鬼魂，可以理解為母親的意志。故事的情節(jié)也簡化了，沒有舞會，沒有失鞋試鞋的過程，就只是灰姑娘在母親鬼魂的幫助下變得漂亮了，那個男人就選擇了她，卡特砍去了所有可能擋住讀者視線的枝葉。不過，這個版本也增加了一些細節(jié)，如：母親的鬼魂鉆進奶牛、貓和小鳥的身體幫助灰姑娘之后，說了三句話：“你把我擠干了?！薄澳惆盐遗獨垙U了?！薄拔乙呀?jīng)沒有血可灑了?！边@些細節(jié)給故事抹上了一層殘忍的顏色，母親的鬼魂做這一切的時候并不像仙女教母一樣輕松，只要魔棒一揮就可以了。整個故事不再是善良美麗的灰姑娘在仙女教母的幫助下和王子過上了幸福的生活，而是幾個女人在爭奪一個男人，不過這個男人并不是單指男人，也指他所代表的社會地位和財富，或者說女人生存的必備條件，因為故事交代得很清楚，灰姑娘爭到了男人，就得到了房子和錢，繼母輸了，就只能去耙灰。這個故事脫去了童話絢麗的外衣，簡單地說出了故事的內(nèi)里：這是一場女人之間的戰(zhàn)爭，反映的卻是男性主導的社會中女性的無奈和脆弱。她們要生存，只能依附于男人，為此她們必須展開爭奪，而這種爭奪有時候會很殘酷。當然，這是卡特的女性主義解讀，但也在很大程度上反映了當時的社會現(xiàn)實。

卡特的第三個故事應該說更像是一個碎片，人物只有灰姑娘和她母親的鬼魂，情節(jié)只涉及灰姑娘的變裝。故事中，灰姑娘戴的寶石是蛆蟲變的，馬車是棺材變的，整個故事令人毛骨悚然。

從某種意義上說，安吉拉·卡特的《掃灰娘》將童話故事《灰姑娘》給毀了，她把童話的美好給打碎了，涂上殘忍恐怖的色彩，但那些碎片卻在詭異光線的照射下反映出現(xiàn)實的模樣。

興趣閱讀

關(guān)于灰姑娘的故事，世界各國流傳著各種各樣的版本，我國唐代段成式的《酉陽雜俎支諾皋上》中記載了一個關(guān)于葉限的故事。據(jù)說，這是所有灰姑娘故事中最早的一個版本。