英国新生代代表作家扎迪·史密斯的新作《西北》一经问世即受到西方评论界的广泛关注。本文以文学伦理学批评为研究视角,在空间关系和人际关系共筑的伦理环境中,探索小说反映的当下英国移民在“主体”与“客体”、“自我”与“他者”、“主人”与“客人”的伦理身份定位上出现的新问题,揭示21世纪的英国人,尤其是第二代英国移民伦理身份选择的复杂性。
This article takes the theoretical approach of ethical literary criticism to study Zadie Smith's NW, which has received much critical attention since its publication in 2012. The novel creates an ethical ecology of space relationships and human relationships to address new issues that trouble contemporary British immigrants, who find it difficult to locate their ethical identity between "subject" and "object", "self and "other, "host" and "guest". Thereby Smith reveals the complex identity problem that British citizens, especially second-generation British immigrants, are faced with in the 21 st: century.