本文是一篇英语论文，本文呼吁进一步研究戈迪默作品中的意识形态和其他政治问题，尤其是她早期小说中在中国学术界较少受到关注的那些问题。
Chapter One Understanding Ideological Fantasy
1.1 The Origin and Definition of Ideological Fantasy
Žižek’s notion of ideological fantasy,with its Marxian root,is an important partof his thoughts on political philosophy.In addition,like many of his central ideas,itdraws on Lacanian psychoanalytical concepts in order to chart a new path forconventional ideological criticism.This section will first delineate the academicbackground and the accurate definition of ideological fantasy.
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What should be noted is that the fundamental idea and main tenets of ideologicalfantasy were clearly elaborated and have not changed inŽižek’s academic career,which can be seen in his famous treatises such as The Sublime Object of Ideology andThe Plague of Fantasies apart from several journals.AlthoughŽižek“returned to be afirm proponent of Marx during the last decade of 20th century and started to doubt theliberal-democratic institution that most Post-Marxists had supported”(Mo,2009:10),he has still been utilizing ideas related to ideological fantasy to strengthen argumentsin his recently published editorials.
In The Sublime Object of Ideology,he sheds light on ideological fantasy bystarting with Lacan’s opinion:“it was none other than Karl Marx who invented thenotion of symptom”(Žižek,2008:3).The symptom here is a particular elementinherent in the system that could eventually subvert the system;it is indispensable totackle malfunction both in the realm of psychology and politics.From the Marxianview,ideology is a“false consciousness”,which is best described as“they do notknow it,but they are doing it”;to shake off the control of ideology,one should findout the symptom of society,i.e.the unreasonable existing in the whole reason thateventually subverts the latter,the process of which is symptomatic reading.
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1.2 Critical Factors:In the Scope of Signification and Desire
To complement the procedures of contemporary ideological criticism,Žižekpoints out the two critical factors of ideological fantasy,i.e.quilt of discourse andsurplus-enjoyment.Also,through these two factors,we observe the way that theexplicit and authoritative power of ideological fantasy controls--yet somehow alsorelies on--the implicit,ambiguous existence of the overflowing objet petit a.Theircontradictory but co-dependent relationship is crucial to the final traverse of thefantasy.
The first factor takes effect in the signification with what Lacan calls“point decapiton”,i.e.the anchoring point.In his graph of desire,the anchoring point isarticulated in the elementary cell,“by which the signifier stops the otherwise endlessmovement of the signification”(Lacan,2001:231).AsŽižek emphasizes,inideological space there are,at first,unbounded floating signifiers,the meanings ofwhich are codependent with other elements,but then the anchoring point“quilt”themso as to create fixed meanings for each small item under the overarching concept of acertain ideology.Furthermore,the quilting has a retroactive feature:all the meaningthat might be found in the targeted object comes from the ideology,which contributesto wiping out the fundamental antagonism.Generally,there are at least two kinds ofquilting indispensable for an ideology to weave its unique discourse.For one,“inevery ideological edifice,there is a kind of‘trans-ideological’kernel”(Žižek,1997:21),which means that,through the quilting,the meaning of a universallyacknowledged quality would be transformed into an ideologically charged one,likeunity under the Fascist value.For another,the quilting process enables an object to bethe constantly overflow element,the intangible“X”,for the public to chase after,likethe Jews to the Nazi German.Žižek expatiates on the quilted discourse in his exampleof the tangling relationships between the Jew and the Nazi:“In short,the differencebetween the Name-of-the-Father and the‘conceptual Jew’is that between symbolicfiction and fantamastic spectre:in the Lacanian algebra,between the Master-Signifier(the empty signifier of symbolic authority)and objet petit a”(Žižek,1994:57).Thusthe antagonism between them usually manifests itself as social symptoms and leavesroom for Marxian symptomatic reading.
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Chapter Two Ideological Fantasy Enacted inEveryday Contexts
2.1 Discourse Quilted around the Farm
Linguists committed to the study of everyday discourse usually agree that thereis a dynamic relationship of constructing and being constructed between language andreality,echoing with John Austin’s discovery that“the total speech act in the totalspeech situation is the only actual phenomenon which,in the last resort,we areengaged in elucidating”(1962:147).In The Conservationist,featured with aperforming nature,the characters’discourses from the casual conversationalexchanges to innermost thoughts are quilted and directed retroactively to the apartheidideology.Based on the quilted discourse,the reality on the farm is graduallyconstructed and consolidated,despite the fact that nearly no one claims to havebelieved any of its content.
2.1.1 The Dud Cheque of Separate Development
Separate development was made to be the unified philosophy of South Africa byPrime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd.He denied the possibility to look after everyone’srights in a multi-racial nation and enacted policies such as native reserves andpassbooks by repeatedly emphasizing that the only possible way toward the future isto adopt a development porced from each other.That is all that the word apartheidmeans.In The Conservationist,separate development managed to wrap its inhumaneexploitation under the dud cheque of the development myth.It permeates into thefinest texture of daily life around the farm through discourse,which establishes thevery ground of ideological fantasy.
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2.2 Reality Constructed in the Farm
As the apartheid discourse quilted with separate development and the conceptualblack tempers with the plain meaning of everyday objects and events through thesignifying process,it provides“a‘schema’according to which certain positive objectsin reality can function as objects of desire,filling in the empty places opened up bythe formal symbolic structure”(Žižek,1997:7).Therefore,when examining the socialreality on the farm,we should be aware of what truths underlie the stiffnessmanifested in people’s everyday life.There is a spectrum of ideologies spanning fromthe liberal-leftists to the nationalists;undoubtedly,the spectrum also contains the faintvoices of the pro-white and the survivor in the black world.However,if we lookclosely,all the ideologies actually revolve around the one and only kernel andconstruct the reality on the farm.
In the novel,there is a literary equivalent that describes how the reality isconstructed by ideological fantasy,i.e.“groove”.The word“groove”not only refersto long cuts on the dirt-covered ground scored by Mehring’s Mercedes leading to thefarm,but also indicates the designated scope of the symbolic order,in which thesubject is totally confined:“The well-regulated demands and responses between theBoers and himself,the usual sort of exchange between his black man and himselfhave re-engraved the fine criss-cross of grooves on which his mind habitually runs”(58).Fixed by the thinking grooves,they can do nothing but play games according tothe unwritten rules of apartheid.
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Chapter Three Ideological Fantasy Experienced as Surplus-enjoyment.............30
3.1 Emptiness as Mehring’s Surplus-enjoyment............................31
3.1.1 Heritage Crisis behind Superficial Decency.........................32
3.1.2 Unfunctional Relationships behind Insatiable Desire...................35
Chapter Four Ideological Fantasy Traversed via Irrationality...................44
4.1 The Dead Body:The Force of Irrationality.............................44
4.1.1 Interpretation of Land Issues Brought by the Body.....................45
4.1.2 Identification with The Body in Dreams and Hallucinations...............47
Conclusion......................56
Chapter Four Ideological Fantasy Traversed viaIrrationality
4.1 The Dead Body:The Force of Irrationality
Restrained in the fantasy framework,the white and the non-white both sufferfrom the surplus-enjoyment.However,there is a prominent difference between them.The white conjures up an egocentric blueprint via the fantasy.For instance,Mehringmakes the natural scenery symbols of heritage or sexual desire,but he rarely has anydown-to-earth connection with nature like the non-white does.Shrouded under thesignification net of apartheid,the non-white,especially the Bantu,is forced to foregothis connection,as suggested in one of the Amazulu quotes:“The Amatongo,they whoare beneath.Some natives say,so called,because they have been buried beneath theearth.But we cannot avoid believing that we have an intimation of an old faith in aHades or Tartarus,which has become lost and is no longer understood.”(emphasis inorig;163)
The body is the strongest force of irrationality,the presence of which refutes thecomforting yet false sense of security based on the development myth.In its own way,it restores the relation between nature,history and contemporary human activity,andalso articulates the inherited culture from the ancestor and the self-evident rights ofevery human being.
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Conclusion
The above chapters explore in the novel the essence and varied manifestations ofideological fantasy.
Starting from the fantasy’s establishment,Chapter Two analyzes the twoanchoring points of apartheid to reveal how people’s real-life relationship isconstructed in everyday context by the quilted discourse.Looking for a deeply-rootedreason behind the twisted reality,Chapter Three finds what the characters experienceis only surplus-enjoyment deprived of satisfaction.However,as Chapter Fourindicates,what stands out from the gloomy atmosphere of the novel is the dead bodythat epitomizes the black community.It emerges as a force of irrationality thatdestructs the whole fantasy and leads to death drive,a trial of irrationality for allpeople.
Here in conclusion,the author would like to reiterate what ideological fantasy inthis novel means.Instead of merely regarding apartheid as a macroscopic collectionof immoral policies,this novel views apartheid from a more private perspective.Itshows how apartheid enters people’s everyday interaction and their innermost feelingsand how it forms a truth-concealing,fantasy-like dilemma for them,in which theywould confuse in anguish.What we see in the novel,including the antagonism andpower transformation throughout the establishment,consolidation and traverse of thefantasy,cannot be separate from Gordimer’s detailed and sympathetic observation ofapartheid’s harm to inpiduals in real,down-to-earth life.From this perspective,theauthor subscribes to the idea that it is appropriate to view The Conservationist asGordimer's bold experiment to represent South Africa's conscience in literature andpolitics.
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