安吉拉·卡特：重述灰姑娘的故事

Pamelar

安吉拉卡特（AngelaCarter，1940～1992）是一位英国女作家，出生于英国东南部港口城市伊斯特本，后搬至英国东北部的约克郡和外祖母共同生活。安吉拉·卡特青年时期在布里斯托大学攻读中世纪文学，她精通法语、德语，也会说日语，到过美国、澳大利亚，也曾经在日本居住过两三年。她当过记者，曾给《卫报》《独立报》撰稿，也曾先后在英国谢菲尔德大学、美国布朗大学、澳大利亚阿德莱德大学和东安格利亚大学任驻校作家，日本作家石黑一雄就普是她的学生。

安吉拉卡特是个多产的作家，共出版了九部长篇小说，多个短篇小说集，并著有诗歌和文艺评论，代表作有长篇小说《影子舞》（ShadowDance，1966）、《魔幻玩具铺》（TheMagicToyshop，1967）、《新夏娃的激情》（ThePassionofNewEve，1977）、《马戏团之夜》（NightsattheCircus，1984）和短篇小说集《烟火》（Fireworks，1974）、《染血之室》（TheBloodyChamber，1979）、《黑色维纳斯》（BlackVenus，1985）等。

安吉拉卡特的写作风格糅女性主义和魔幻现实主义于一体，书中不乏怪诞诡秘甚至有点残酷恐怖的描写，但反映的却都是现实，或者说是一些我们未曾注意的现实。这一点在她根据童话故事改写的一系列故事中表现得很明显。下面我们就来看看安吉拉·卡特改写的灰姑娘的故事，她一共改写了三个版本，我们这里节选的是第二个版本。因为语言难度问题，节选时有所改動。

The Burned Child

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. “You've 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 burnedchild's 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. “You've 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. “I'm 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. ”

charcoal 木炭

scarred 有疤痕的

hearth 爐膛

rake 用耙自耙

mat 棕垫

scraping 刮

scars 疤痕

tangled 纠缠的

mained 使残废

beak 鸟嘴

文章欣赏

本文选自安吉拉卡特的短篇小说《扫灰娘，又名：母亲的鬼魂》，小说一共包含了三个不同版本的灰姑娘的故事，第一个版本负责将原来的童话敲碎，它对原来的灰姑娘的故事提出了质疑：为什么灰姑娘的父亲任由继母虐待灰姑娘？为什么灰姑娘只要树枝做礼物？斑鸠到底代表了什么？同时补充了一些大家都忽略的细节，如继母挥刀割掉自己女儿的脚趾和脚后跟时女儿的惶恐以及王子在几次试穿之间没有洗过鞋子，灰姑娘赤脚伸进血淋淋的鞋子时的恐惧与无奈等。

第二个版本就是这里节选的部分，这是一个相对完整的故事，但是人物情节都相对简化了：在所有版本的灰姑娘故事中，父亲的角色都是缺失的，所以这里就索性略去了;王子的角色也被简化到一个男人，连姓名都没有提及，我们只知道他应该很有钱，只知道他是灰姑娘和继母，或者说还有灰姑娘的母亲争夺的目标;继母的女儿们也被略去了，因为她们反正只是她们母亲意志的傀儡;仙女教母也没有了，取而代之的是母亲的鬼魂，这样似乎更解释得通，因为我们都知道现实中是没有仙女的，而鬼魂，可以理解为母亲的意志。故事的情节也简化了，没有舞会，没有失鞋试鞋的过程，就只是灰姑娘在母亲鬼魂的帮助下变得漂亮了，那个男人就选择了她，卡特砍去了所有可能挡住读者视线的枝叶。不过，这个版本也增加了一些细节，如：母亲的鬼魂钻进奶牛、猫和小鸟的身体帮助灰姑娘之后，说了三句话：“你把我挤干了。”“你把我弄残废了。”“我已经没有血可洒了。”这些细节给故事抹上了一层残忍的颜色，母亲的鬼魂做这一切的时候并不像仙女教母一样轻松，只要魔棒一挥就可以了。整个故事不再是善良美丽的灰姑娘在仙女教母的帮助下和王子过上了幸福的生活，而是几个女人在争夺一个男人，不过这个男人并不是单指男人，也指他所代表的社会地位和财富，或者说女人生存的必备条件，因为故事交代得很清楚，灰姑娘争到了男人，就得到了房子和钱，继母输了，就只能去耙灰。这个故事脱去了童话绚丽的外衣，简单地说出了故事的内里：这是一场女人之间的战争，反映的却是男性主导的社会中女性的无奈和脆弱。她们要生存，只能依附于男人，为此她们必须展开争夺，而这种争夺有时候会很残酷。当然，这是卡特的女性主义解读，但也在很大程度上反映了当时的社会现实。

卡特的第三个故事应该说更像是一个碎片，人物只有灰姑娘和她母亲的鬼魂，情节只涉及灰姑娘的变装。故事中，灰姑娘戴的宝石是蛆虫变的，马车是棺材变的，整个故事令人毛骨悚然。

从某种意义上说，安吉拉·卡特的《扫灰娘》将童话故事《灰姑娘》给毁了，她把童话的美好给打碎了，涂上残忍恐怖的色彩，但那些碎片却在诡异光线的照射下反映出现实的模样。

兴趣阅读

关于灰姑娘的故事，世界各国流传着各种各样的版本，我国唐代段成式的《酉阳杂俎支诺皋上》中记载了一个关于叶限的故事。据说，这是所有灰姑娘故事中最早的一个版本。有兴趣的同学可以扫描二维码阅读。