摘 要

凯瑟琳·安·波特擅长撰写短篇小说，在美国文坛声望颇高。《窃贼》是波特短篇小说中的杰作，短小精悍而又晦涩难懂，讲述了美国经济大萧条期间人际关系的恶化以及人们面临的经济危机。

本文拟以文本细读为指引，解读《窃贼》的题目内涵，挖掘出小说中潜在的所有窃贼和真正的窃贼。通过对人物的分析后发现，卡米洛，罗杰，比尔和女管理员各自窃取了女主人公的财产，然而真正的窃贼是女主人公自己。波特在这篇故事中，旨在说明增强自我身份认同的重要性和忽视自身生活的不可取。每个人在日常生活中都可能会失去一些东西，但是最糟糕的是你发现这一切都是因你自己对它们的忽视与漠不关心而造成的，因为这种形式的失去将会让你变得一无所有。

本文分为四章。第一章简要介绍作家凯瑟琳·安·波特和《窃贼》的主要内容以及文献综述。第二章详细阐述了小说中对女主人公物质财富的窃贼。第三章着重探讨谁是窃取女主人公精神财富的真正窃贼。通过分析女主人公对她失窃钱包的前后反应，本文揭示出她一直被盗窃的根源在于她自我意识的薄弱。第四章总结了小说中真正的窃贼和作为一个独立个体应具备的正确价值观念。

关键词：凯瑟琳·安·波特；《窃贼》；自我意识；人际关系

Abstract

Katherine Anne Porter is good at honing short stories, enjoying high prestige in American literature. Porter’s Theft, one of her appealing masterpieces, is a subtle and complicated short story about the deteriorating relationships and financial hardships that accompany adult life in the Great Depression in America.

This paper focuses on the implications of the story’s title Theft, pointing out all the latent thefts and the real theft. Camilo, Roger, Bill and the janitress are all thefts who steal the heroine’s material possessions, but the real one is the heroine herself. Through the story, Porter intends to emphasize the importance of establishing one’s identity and the risk of neglecting one’s life. Quite a few things may be taken from one’s daily life, but the worst thing is his or her neglect of and indifference to those things, which results in such kind of loss, and will leave him or her nothing.

This paper consists of four chapters. The first chapter is the brief introduction to Katherine Anne Porter and Theft. Chapter Two specifies all the latent thefts who steal the heroine’s material possessions. Chapter Three explores who is the real theft of stealing the heroine’s spiritual possessions. By analyzing the heroine’s response to her stolen purse, this paper intends to reveal that it is her loss of self-consciousness that leads to her being robbed. The final chapter summarizes the elements that make one person be a theft and the important value of the person as an individual.

Key words: Katherine Anne Porter; Theft; self-consciousness; human relationship

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Katherine Anne Porter and Theft 1

1.2 Literature Review 2

1.3 Structure of the Paper 3

2 The Theft’s Identification from the Physical Perspective 4

2.1 Setting: The Great Depression 4

2.2 The Theft in Different Relations 4

2.2.1 Camilo: superficiality 5

2.2.2 Roger: hypocrisy 6

2.2.3 Bill: selfishness 7

2.2.4 Janitress: arbitrariness 9

3 The Theft’s Identification from the Spiritual Perspective 11

3.1 The Heroine “She” 11

3.1.1 The heroine’s personality 11

3.1.2 The heroine’s attitude toward valuable things in the past 12

3.1.3 Her living condition: lonely and rejected 12

3.2 Revival from the Lost 13

3.2.1 Self-unawareness of the lost 14

3.2.2 Her awareness of the real thief of all 14

4 Conclusion 16