ABSTRACT

In literary studies, the concepts of ‘shame’ and ‘guilt’ are often associated with sentimentalism, passive agency or politics of victimhood. By drawing upon the recent ‘affective turn’ in cultural theory, this essay uncovers the unavoidable collusion and complicity between what I call ‘imperialist shame’ and ‘indigenous guilt’ in George Orwell’s writings on Burma – ‘Shooting an Elephant’, ‘A Hanging’ and Burmese Days – that sustain the relationships of dominance and subservience in colonial Burma. Existing readings of Orwell’s writings on Burma have tended to emphasise its pseudo-critical treatment of imperialism, and its liminal positioning between imperialism and anti-colonialism. This essay contends that shame, guilt and their micro-political trajectories such as ‘narcissistic shame’, ‘residual guilt’ and ‘shameless guilt’ serve as the affective triggers of Orwell’s ambivalence towards imperialism.

摘要

在文学研究中，“羞耻”和“内gui”的概念通常与情感主义，消极的代理或受害者政治联系在一起。通过借鉴最近文化理论的“情感转向”，本文揭示了乔治·奥威尔关于缅甸的著作中所谓的“帝国主义耻辱”与“土著罪恶感”之间不可避免的串通和共谋-“射击大象”，“吊死”和缅甸日–维持了缅甸殖民统治和统治的关系。奥威尔关于缅甸的著作的现有读物倾向于强调其对帝国主义的伪批判性对待，以及其在帝国主义与反殖民主义之间的界限定位。本文认为，耻辱，罪恶感及其微观政治轨迹，例如“自恋的耻辱”，“残留的罪恶感”和“无耻的罪恶感”，是奥威尔对帝国主义矛盾心态的情感触发。