本文是一篇英语论文，笔者认为“寓言二部曲”深刻展示了在生命政治隐秘的运作机制下，生命是如何被排斥在社会共同体之外、被定义为不值得活的生命、并最终被降格为赤裸生命。通过直接地揭露生命政治对生命的支配和排斥以及赤裸生命的生存困境，巴特勒试图唤起人们对当下社会问题的关注。
Chapter One Biopolitical Governance in Three Dimensions
1.1 Isolation of Spaces: Excluding “Harmful” Lives
Space was once seen as empty and meaningless. Around the second half of the 20th century, there is a shift in the definition of space, which is seen as political and ideological. Michel Foucault also sees space as a place where power operates. Any kind of spatial layout or planning is the product of power. Having analyzed the arrangement of urban space in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Security, Territory, Population, Foucault argues that the layout and division of space is a manifestation of security and power mechanisms, and also one of the measures of modern biopolitical governance. The isolation of living spaces between classes and the separation between states is an effective way for biopower to exclude “harmful” and “worthless” lives. Through the governance of spatial isolation, the homeless and lower middle class, who are seen as threats to the security of society, are kept out the normalized society, thus creating a security mechanism aimed at protecting the safety and well-being of specific population and reinforcing existing hierarchies.
1.1.1 Isolation of Living Space Between Classes
In Parables, there is a strict separation of living spaces between classes due to the gross economic disparity between rich and poor. Firstly, living spaces between the lower middle class and the homeless are separated by high walls, which is an embodiment of the implementation of biopower by the lower middle class. “Biopower is not merely governmental power; it is invisible, plural, discursive, pervasive and enforced through myriad power relationships” (Liesen & Walsh 7). In Parables, most of the southern states of the United States are infested with junkies, the homeless, vagrants, and arsonists, most of whom are so desperate that they resort to violence and atrocities to express their feelings.
1.2 Suspension and Adjustment of Laws: Safeguarding the Interests of the Bourgeoisie
The paradigm of government in modern society, according to Agamben, is the state of exception, which he defines as “a zone of absolute indeterminacy between anomie and law” (Agamben, State of Exception 57). By impeding the flow of populations, spatial isolation serves as a technique of governance to protect the security and quality of life of the rich at the expense of the human rights of the poor. In this situation, driven by profit, the sovereign, instead of providing aid for the poor, worsens their plight by declaring a state of exception. What’s worse, in the name of promoting employment and maintaining city appearance, sovereign power colludes with the capitalists to adjust existing laws, which further expands the scope of the state of exception. The governance of sovereign power turns the state of exception into a national norm rather than an emergency.
1.2.1 Suspension of Laws
The rational formulation and strict implementation of laws are conducive to the maintenance of social order and the protection of people’s interests. A nation without established law authority will eventually decline. However, the law is easily used by those in power as a tool to defend their identity and interests. Once the law is governed by the power, the rights and benefits of certain people, particularly the marginal groups, will be deprived. In Parables, the validity of the American laws depends on the sovereign, and the law no longer demonstrates its significance in protecting citizens’ interests or maintaining social order.
Chapter Two Bare Life under Biopolitical Governance
2.1 The Proletariat: the Exploited Bare Life
As a result of capital’s desperate grab for natural resources, America, formerly a prosperous and vibrant country, has experienced the disaster of ecological imbalance for decades. The scarcity of resources like water, oil, and electricity not only exacerbates people’s living conditions but also escalates the cost of basic survival. Meanwhile, the recession of economy has resulted in widespread unemployment. Consequently, many people become vagrants and the homeless. In this context, the government, rather than offering assistance to the impoverished, conspires with capitalists to exploit the proletariat legally. On the one hand, natural resources that should be accessible to all are monopolized by capitalists. Simultaneously, the social resources that the proletariat should enjoy as citizens are no longer provided; on the other hand, the suspension and change of laws by the government has led to the proletariat devoid of the protection of previous laws, which renders them akin to slaves in modern society. With the dual exploitation by the government and the capitalists, the proletariat is reduced to bare life, enduring endless exploitation.
2.1.1 Dispossessed of Natural and Social Resources
According to Negri, from the modern to postmodern, “the capitalist regime has made itself totalitarian and certainly fiercer”, and “it no longer exploits only workers, but all citizens” (Negri 144) by including the whole life in its production. For Hardt and Negri, “capitalist production is becoming biopolitical” (Hardt & Negri, Commonwealth 133), and its accumulation is increasingly achieved by the expropriation of the common.
2.2 The Female: the Manipulated Bare Life
The long existence of patriarchy places women in a subordinate position in both society and the family. Male used to have absolute power over female, restricting their freedom and even deciding their lives. With the development of modern society, women have gained increasing importance in both society and the family, and are now on a relatively equal footing with men. In Parables, however, the traditional patriarchy, which is utilized by the sovereign as a tool to shift crises and maintain ruling power, prevails in America in the 21st century, once again relegating females to the margins of society. Thus, females, especially those in lower classes, face a double dilemma in the post-apocalyptic society. While undergoing immense survival pressure caused by economic collapse and capital exploitation, female also endures patriarchal oppression brought by the deep-rooted patriarchy, having their discourse right and freedom deprived, and their bodies reduced to sexual objects of male. They are bare lives manipulated by males. For women, each man can become the powerful sovereign to control their life and turn them into a biological existence.
Chapter Three Strategies against the Oppression of Biopolitical Governance ......... 50
3.1 Seeking Spiritual Comfort: the Conception of Earthseed ............... 50
3.1.1 Using Trauma Writing as an Outlet ........................................... 51
3.1.2 Regarding Earthseed as the Only Faith ...................................... 52
Conclusion ...................................... 70
Chapter Three Strategies against the Oppression of Biopolitical Governance
3.1 Seeking Spiritual Comfort: the Conception of Earthseed
Whether female, the proletariat, or non-Christian, people who are reduced to the level of bare life all feel despair and pain in the spirit. Seeking spiritual comfort is important for them to tackle various challenges brought by biopolitical oppression. For Lauren, writing functions as a healing power. Through writing, she is able to sort out her thoughts and vent her feelings. Moreover, her religion, Earthseed, provides her with great spiritual sustenance to endure all kinds of dangers and torments. It can be said that writing and Earthseed are two indispensable factors in Lauren’s survival and her ultimate success in resisting biopolitical oppression.
3.1.1 Using Trauma Writing as an Outlet
According to Herman, repeated traumatic events often “exists in prisons, concentration camps, and slave labor camps”, and it may also “exist in religious cults, in brothels and other institutions of organized sexual exploitation, and in families” (Herman 93). Biopolitical oppression is implemented in similar places and through similar ways to traumatic events. In addition, people suffered biopolitical oppression often share similar mental characteristics to the traumatic individuals or groups. It can be said that traumatic events and biopolitical oppression are closely linked. Therefore, ways that are used to recover from trauma can also serve as a way to overcome and resist biopolitical oppression. Reconnecting with others, according to Herman, is an important stage for trauma recovery. Trauma narrative is one of the ways for traumatic individuals to reconnect with others. In this respect, trauma narrative is also a necessary process for the recovery of trauma. “Trauma narratives is accomplished not only through telling traumatic experiences to therapists or loved ones, but also through writing” (Shi 136). Through trauma narrative, especially through writing, the heroine Lauren narrates how lives are oppressed by biopolitical governance, which is a way for her to vent her feelings of repression and fear, and to look into and reinvent herself.
Conclusion
Born into an underclass family, Octavia Butler was discriminated against and bullied by peers; therefore, she spent a large part of her childhood alone, feeling herself unable to integrate into society and was excluded from it. Writing became a way for her to relieve loneliness and sadness. Her childhood experience made her has deep feelings about the injustice of society. By writing fiction novels, she conveyed her feelings and revealed all kinds of problems existed in society. She has created a large number of works and made some achievements. Parables are also one of her outstanding works, in which she has warned people the possible crises that America may encounter in the future in an allegorical form. Based on the theory of biopolitics, this thesis analyzes biopolitical governance from three aspects, then discusses three types of bare life produced under the governance, and finally explores the strategies against biopolitical oppression.
In Parables, the social order is nearly collapsed, the gape between the rich and the poor is huge, and the concept of interest first becomes the mainstream thought. For personal benefits, the government either governs passively or colludes with the capitalists to oppress its citizens. In a word, safeguarding its own interests is the main purpose of biopolitical governance, which is manifested in the two novels in three dimensions. Firstly, there is a strict isolation of living spaces between classes, including isolation between the lower middle class and the homeless, and among the lower middle class, the homeless and the upper class. Besides, there is also a clear separation between states. People from southern states are not permitted to cross state borders or enter into northern states. The strict isolation between classes, as well as between states is a governance made to protect the rich’s benefits, to reinforce the existing hierarchy, and to exclude lives that are considered harmful by the rich. Secondly, for the sake of its own benefits, on the one hand, the sovereign intentionally suspends the existing laws and no longer dedicates to protect people’s basic rights, which places some people, especially the poor, in a state of exception;
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