论约翰 班维尔《无法企及》中的身份不确定性

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摘 要

约翰·班维尔的小说《无法企及》源自20世纪英国的间谍案，其故事中的主要人物也对应着真实历史事件中的主人公。小说以第一人称叙事，呈现了双重间谍维克多·马斯克尔的晚年生活状态。面对着双重间谍身份的曝光，尊严、荣誉与地位的丧失，以及死亡的威胁，马斯克尔以自白的方式反思过去几十年复杂、动荡的生活，努力回答“我是谁”这个困扰很多人的问题。本论文从斯图尔特· 霍尔的文化身份理论出发，从民族、宗教信仰、性取向这三个方面探寻主人公马斯克尔的身份建构疑惑，分析其身份的不确定性，从而揭示现代语境下人们的生存状态。

除去引言和结论外，本篇论文包含三个章节。第一章分析了维克多·马斯克尔的爱尔兰身份和无法企及的英国身份。作为爱尔兰人，马斯克尔无法摆脱属于爱尔兰的那一部分，因而始终不能真正融入英国，成为一名真正的英国人。第二章从宗教信仰出发分析马斯克尔并不确定的宗教身份。虽然生长在爱尔兰新教家庭，但是马斯克尔对于宗教有自己的看法，甚至在某些方面完全违背了新教教义。第三章主要关注马斯克尔的性取向问题。他没有彻底放弃家庭，也没有完全接受自己的同性恋行为。通过上述三个方面的分析，可以看出，马斯克尔一直受到文化身份的困扰，其身份的不确定性造成了自我的迷失和方向的混乱，也带来了思想上的痛苦与折磨。

关键词：约翰·班维尔；《无法企及》；身份；不确定性

Contents

Acknowledgements I

Abstract II

摘要 III

Introduction 1

Chapter One Maskell’s Indistinct National Identity 7

1.1 The Inextricable Irish Identity 7

1.2 The Untouchable English Identity 10

Chapter Two Maskell’s Pendulous Religious Identity 14

2.1 Maskell’s Vague Attitude towards Catholicism 14

2.2 Maskell’s Uncertain Protestant Beliefs 16

Chapter Three Maskell’s Confused Sexual Identity 19

3.1 The Unfeeling Heterosexual 19

3.2 The Passionate Homosexual 21

Conclusion 25

Works Cited 27

Introduction

John Banville and The Untouchable

John Banville, born in 1945, is not only an editor, adapter of dramas, but also a great Irish novelist who is considered to be “one of the most imaginative literary novelists writing in the English language today”^[1]. Banville’s novels, including Doctor Copernicus, Kepler, The Book of Evidence, Ghosts, The Sea, etc., are famous for his precise, cold, and forensic prose style, and he has received numerous awards in his writing career. The Sea, his fourteenth novel, won the Booker Prize in 2005. In 2011, Banville was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize, while 2013 brought both the Irish PEN Award and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. John Banville was born as the youngest of three siblings who are all literary writers, and although he intended to be a painter and an architect, he did not attend university. He thought it was a waste of time to stay in college. After living in the United States for two years, Banville returned to Ireland as a sub-editor at The Irish Press, and started his writing. Now, he lives in Dublin.

John Banville’s 1997 novel The Untouchable tells the story about the character Victor Maskell—a double agent and homosexual—whose experience is based largely on an historical figure, the Cambridge spy Anthony Blunt. This story does not just present the causes and effects of events, it also places emphasis on the psychological description of those who have the double agent identity.

Victor Maskell, the narrator of this story, born in an Irish family with a rector father, a stepmother who comes from a wealthy Quaker family, and a mentally retarded brother, starts his study and life in London when he grows up. At the beginning of this story, Maskell is sold out by his friend for his double agent identity. Thus, his past is exposed to the whole country overnight, and his title of nobility and position are also revoked. With mixed feelings, Maskell starts to write down his past life which can be called memoirs.

At his 20s, Maskell, with his friends, takes part in many crazy, dissolute and exciting parties. They drink a lot, have a chaotic private life, talk domestic and overseas political problems and join some groups. At that time, they worry about warfare and feel confused about their future life. With time going by, Maskell is introduced to be a Russian spy by his friend. From then on, he starts to step in the government and provide Russia with confidential information. During his spy time, he has worked as a scholar, military police and code breaking expert and has been sent to Moscow, France and Germany.

After the exposure, Maskell has picked up many calls from strangers and journalists. He is diagnosed to be ill and has less time left. At the end of the story, Maskell, to his surprise, finds the truth that it is his best friend Nick that sells him out. In his whole life, he has suffered much pain from contradictions—the influence of family and religious background; his belief and his betray to the country; his change of sex orientation. He has been faithfully playing his different roles, but eventually, he cannot tell that which one is the true self of his own.

Literature Review

After John Banville’s The Sea won the Booker Prize in 2005, many scholars started to pay attention to the Irish writer, thus bringing more research about his works. There are only a small number of research papers about Banville in Chinese academia, and the majority of them are about The Sea. Among the few relevant research results on The Untouchable, Xu Lin Lin’s master thesis “The Untouchable: the Theme of Self-search in John Banville’s Works” and Xia Jin’s doctoral dissertation of confessional research on John Banville’s novels only partly mention the psychological activities of Maskell.

However, research abroad has taken shape—six monographs, many journal articles and book reviews. In 2006, the Irish University Review made a special issue on John Banville. For his works, critics usually concentrate on two aspects: one focuses on the theme and content, the other focuses on the narrative forms.

At present, critics concentrate on the following aspects when it comes to the research of The Untouchable. The first one is the method of story construction. Pietra Palazzolo’s “Telling Stories: Alterity and Ethics in John Banville's The Untouchable and Shroud” looks at the possibility of “performing readings relevant to ethics of historical events in the ‘enlarged’ space of fiction”. (145) This essay illustrates Banville’s method of delicately recasting the real events into “an intriguing intervention” on the complicated matters of alterity and ethics. (145)

Secondly, most scholars are interested in the characters’ psychological activities, especially those of the narrator Victor Maskell. Victoria Stewart argues in “I May Have Misrecalled Everything: John Banville’s The Untouchable” about the narrator’s presentation of himself without the ability to “know the past with any certainty”(238). Besides, Stewart also pays attention to uncertainties that are “compounded in a text that deals with deceit, betrayal and the concealment of sexuality”(238) and some further ideas about “authenticity, representation, and the relationship between public and private life” (238). In his essay “Subjectivity as Espionage: The Dark Legacy of Modernism in John Banville's The Untouchable”, Darren J. Borg points that through this fictional memoir, Banville offers “a self-portrait with a terrible absence at its center, implicating modernism’s suspicion that the subject is a discursive fiction as the source of Maskell’s treason and nihilism”.(320)

Another example is Elke D. Hoker’s essay “Confession and Atonement in Contemporary Fiction: J. M. Coetzee, John Banville, and Ian McEwan”. This dissertation focuses on the confession and atonement in contemporary fiction. The author gives special attention to the confessional works of three important contemporary novelists—J. M. Coetzee, John Banville, and Ian McEwan. In this dissertation, the author takes John Banville’s The Untouchable as an example. According to him, facing the nonsense attack that the media publish about him and his spying life, the narrator, Victor Maskell, decides to “set the record straight and reveal the truth about himself”.(33) Thus, “his confessional enterprise will be one in which all masks will be discarded to finally find and communicate his true self.”(34) However, it is more difficult than it appears. His confession has become a vicious circle—if he wants to achieve his confession, he has to fully unmask himself, but these masks “clamor for a new confession, a new attempt at self-restoration, which, no doubt, will succeed only in fashioning yet another mask, requiring yet another confession, and so on—ad infinitum.”(35) Instead, Maskell suggests that he is a combination of all his masks. It seems that “to present an endless variety of masks and faces” (35) is his only way out, although which “make up his infinitely unstable identity”(35). This dissertation is inspiring and can shed some light on Victor Maskell’s indeterminacy of identity. Therefore, this thesis will further analyze the identity indeterminacy of Maskell with regard to nationality, religious belief and sexuality.

Stuart Hall's Identity Theory

Living in the modern society, an individual inevitably plays several roles such as child, parent, worker and so on. With time going by, people pay more and more attention to their own identities. However, what is identity? Generally speaking, identity is an essential concept of one’s self-recognition and subjectivity. Further more, identity can be considered as “a complex gathering of personal and impersonal histories, texts, discourses, beliefs, cultural assumptions and ideological interpellations” (Wolfreys 95). Since the 20^th century, identity, a term of sociology, gradually develops into an interdisciplinary research area including philosophy, politics, psychology, literature, etc.

In the western academia, many scholars, like feminist, post-modernist and post-colonialist critics, have been trying to devote themselves to do critical research on identity. Stuart Hall is one of them. As a Jamaican English scholar with a multiracial and multicultural background, Hall has contributed a lot to contemporary literary and cultural study. For example, his cultural identity theory and the “Other” theory have gained the attention worldwide.

When it comes to identity, in his “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”, Hall has two definitions about identity from two different perspectives. The first one is that identity is “one, shared culture, a sort of collective ‘one true self’, hiding inside the many other, more superficial or artificially imposed ‘selves’, which people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common.” (393) In this definition, identity is constructed on the basis of a recognition of some common origin, background, culture, or shared history. In other words, identity reflects the shared history and common culture which provide us a continuous and stable foundation to help us to find who we are and what we belong to, while those common history and culture are hidden. The second definition is given from another angle. In his view, instead of “an already accomplished fact” (392), identity is a “ ‘production’, which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation.” (392) That is to say, identity is a continuous and permanent process of construction and reconstruction. Different from the first definition in which identity is considered as a perpetually fixed thing, cultural identity in the second perspective focuses on the continuity and changeability of history and culture. As Hall clearly states, “Far from being eternally fixed in some essentialised past, they are subject to the continuous ‘play’ of history, culture and power.”(394) Identity cannot be treated as an already completed thing in which we share the same background and culture. In fact, identity is endless and changeable.

In addition, one of the most important parts of Stuart Hall’s identity research is his concept of the “Other”. The “Other” theory, as a multiple concept concerning several aspects such as politics, economy, culture, race, gender, religion and region, has become a critical keyword in current literary and cultural study. According to Hall, difference is the core of the “Other”, and the cultural identity of the “Other” is a process of dual construction—on the one hand, it is the effect of western centralism; on the other hand, the participation of the marginalized identity and marginalized culture plays a big role. (Hall 397) In this essay, Stuart Hall’s cultural identity theory is adopted to help to analyze Victor Maskell’s identity indeterminacy with regard to his nationality, religious belief and sexuality.

Thesis Structure

The main body of this thesis will be divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, Victor Maskell’s Irish identity and his untouchable English identity will be analyzed separately. Maskell wants to escape from Ireland and become a genuine Englishman, but he fails and traps himself in the margin of the two national identities. The second chapter will discuss Maskell’s religious beliefs. Although he is a Protestant, he has his own ideas of religions. Likewise, in spite of his Protestant identity, some of his behaviors do not comply with the Protestant rules. The last chapter mainly focuses on Maskell’s sexuality. He has his marriage and family, but he cannot eliminate his own anxiety, therefore he tries to find a way out in the world of homosexuality.

Chapter One Maskell’s Indistinct National Identity

As an Irish writer, John Banville creates many characters sharing his national background—Irish men who live in the English world. Victor Maskell is one of them, struggling between his English and Irish identities. He hopes to escape from Ireland, but he cannot thoroughly give his Irish nationality away; he wants to become an Englishman, but he is not fully accepted by the genuine English people.

1.1 The Inextricable Irish Identity

In the middle of the 12^th century, England started to invade Ireland. In 1801, according to Anglo-Irish Treaty Alliances, Ireland officially became a part of England and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established. Since then, Ireland became the first colony of England, deeply oppressed in many aspects such as politics, economy, culture and religion. For hundreds of years, England has greatly influenced Ireland, resulting in many contradictions of national characters, cultures and religions.

According to Hall, “our cultural identities reflect the common historical experiences and shared cultural codes which provide us, as ‘one people’, with stable, unchanging and continuous frames of reference and meaning, beneath the shifting divisions and vicissitudes of our actual history.” (Hall 393) For all Irish people, their common history of Ireland decides that they belong to a community which differs from English society. Therefore, those Irish people who live in London may seem to be English, like Victor Maskell, but they still keep their Irish identities and characteristics and are unable to give up.

As for identity, name is an important factor. As we all know, for babies, name is one of the things that they first learn; furthermore, a key factor for them to know themselves is their recognition about their names, including names of those things that differ from “I”. Through names, babies realize their own existence which are connected with others but are clearly different from others. Whether the name is good or bad, it is there, and becomes a part of their own, and cannot be changed and forgot easily. Once a person owns a name, there would be a steady connection with himself and a distinction from others. Besides, the name is a significant symbol of one’s identity. “While a personal name signifies individual distinctiveness, it also positions its bearer in terms of collective similarities(and, of course, differences)”(Jenkins 21)—it is not only the sign of individual uniqueness but also the representation of collective similarities and differences. That is to say, when people are born to the world, they are part of our society. They take part in all kinds of social activities, create groups and organizations, own their own social identity, and finally finish their self-realization. During this process, names become a very critical factor. Moreover, names are also full of national characteristics. When we know a name, we can infer that the owner may have some features or even traits of an age. Therefore, the name is not just a sign; it bears history and culture, which symbolizes one’s identity.

In the novel The Untouchable, Maskell lives in London, has a new social identity and works hard for a higher status. Thus, his new identity replaces the original one, resulting in serious psychological trauma and pain. However, Maskell cannot really get away from his Irish identity, which is showed in his attitude towards his name. The following is his talk with Vivienne’s mother when he proposes to Vivienne:

“We have no doubt that you, Mr. Maskell—”

“Call me Victor, please,” I murmured. A bubble of manic, miserable laughter was now pushing its hot way upward in my chest and threatening to choke me. (Banville 78)

In the whole story, Maskell has been correcting his name. From this it can be found that the narrator is more willing to be called Victor rather than Maskell. “Maskell” is the varient of “Marshall” and is usually used as the last name of English and Scottish people.^[2] He has a very complicated feeling—he wants to get away from Ireland, but when he is called his last name which is full of English characteristic, he cannot accept this kind of name from the depth of his heart. As a matter of fact, he admits that he can’t escape and throw away his Irish root. Besides, there is another example showing his attitude:

“What did you call me?” I said. “My name is not John.”

“For us you are. For our meetings.”

“Nonsense. I’m not going to have some ridiculous code name foisted on me. I won’t be able to remember it. You’ll telephone me and I’ll say, There’s no John here, and hang up. It’s impossible. John, indeed!” (Banville 121)

In this part, it is the reflection of Maskell’s contradictory mentality—despite the fact that he should act as a spy and hide his identity, he cannot stand that English name. For himself, he is still an Irishman. All his attitudes towards his name fully show that he still has his Irish part which he wants to discard.

Besides, Maskell’s attitudes towards his home also reflect the fact that he still keeps his Irish identity. For Maskell, home is a place which bears the common history and experience that he and other Irishmen have. According to Hall’s cultural identity theory, this shared history always reminds Maskell of his belonging to the Irish community. As an Irish, Maskell leaves his homeland and tries to pursue a better life, but there is always an unconscious desire to return to his homeland. He is in a contradictory situation—on the one hand, Ireland is his root, a place where he is born and brought up, and a home to return to; on the other hand, it is also a place that he is trying to escape, because in his eyes, his home is shameful and is an obstacle of his way to England. At his wedding ceremony, Maskell’s father and stepmother look “frightened and country-mousey”(Banville 81), which makes him feel “embarrassed for them, and by them.” (Banville 81) When he and Nick goes to Ireland, because of his mentally retarded brother Freddie and the “concatenation of sadness”, “dingy” and “tired, brownish, intimate, awful” place (Banville 56), he is “ashamed of everything, and ashamed of myself for being ashamed.” (Banville 56) Nevertheless, Maskell still longs for his home and family in the depth of his heart. During their journey to the Irish home, he alternately feels excited and disappointed. His description is as follows:

When the hills of Carrickdrum came into view a kind of panic seized me and I wanted to wrench open the carriage door and leap out and be swallowed in the engine’s steam and flying smoke. “Home,” Nick said in a sepulchral voice, startling me. “You must be cursing me for making you come.” He had an unnerving ability sometimes to guess what one was thinking. (Banville 53)

In this part, Nick thinks Maskell does not want to go home, but the last sentence shows that Nick is wrong and also shows Maskell’s urgency to return to his home. In addition, through the whole book, Maskell has mentioned his childhood with his father, stepmother and little brother for many times. When his father dies, “the thought of Ireland and home had come to me unbidden and my heart.” (Banville 111) In his heart, the home is a peaceful haven for him. In a sense, Maskell’s desire to return home is actually a return to his Irish identity.

In Stuart Hall’s view, identity is based on the common background and culture. Although Victor Maskell lives in England and lives like an Englishman, his Irish culture and family make it impossible for him to cut off his Irish identity thoroughly.

1.2 The Untouchable English Identity

As mentioned before, England and Ireland have a long history that deeply interpenetrated with each other. As a result, the life style of Irish people becomes closer and closer to English habits. However, it does not mean that Irish people become English; they just seem like English. Why? Because their Irish traits will never disappear which makes them different from the genuine Englishmen. As Hall states,

They are resources of resistance and identity, with which to confront the fragmented and pathological ways in which that experience has been reconstructed within the dominant regimes of cinematic and visual representation of the West. (Hall 394)

The past common history is the foundation of one’s original identity. However, when he starts a new life and tries to gain a new identity in the dominant country, his past identity will become the resistance to the construction of his new identity. For Victor Maskell, he has a new life in England and starts to become English, but his Irish part prevents him from being accepted. For genuine Englishmen, Maskell is from another nation and different from them. In their eyes, his name is not an authentic English name. For example, when Maskell and Vivienne decide to get married, Vivienne shows her doubt, “What shall I call you? Victor is hardly a name, is it. More a title. Like someone in ancient Rome.” (Banville 74) Besides, some Englishmen take every opportunity to use his name Victor to make fun, because “only bandleaders and petty crooks are called Victor”. (Banville 35) For Victor Maskell himself, this name is unsuitable for the achievements, honor and social status that he has gained in England, and that’s why he hates his name.

For the native Englishmen, Ireland is their colony and they are the ones who take in charge. As Hall declares, “They had the power to make us see and experience ourselves as ‘Other’.” (Hall 395) As an Irishman, Maskell is considered as the “other”. He is outside the English world, struggling for an unattainable English identity. This is abundantly shown in the whole book. For instance, when Nick helps Maskell to work in the military department, they have a conversation with Mytchett, the person in charge. The following is a part of that:

“Nick’s a doer,” he said. “We’ll all need to be doers, soon.” He frowned suddenly. “But hang on: what about a conflict of loyalties?”

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