Journal of Literary Writing and Evaluation
JLWE, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2026, pp.20-28.
Print ISSN: 3078-8129; Online ISSN: 3104-5073
Journal homepage: https://www.lwejournal.com
DOI: Https://doi.org/10.64058/jlwe260103ecedo
张梦伟（Zhang Mengwei），谭惠娟(Tan Huijuan)
摘要：赫尔曼·查尔斯·博斯曼的遗作《威廉斯多普》深刻揭示了南非种族问题的伦理困境。本文运用文学伦理学批评，通过分析小说中亲缘、姻缘与血缘关系在种族隔离下的扭曲，提出“逆伦理”这一核心概念，旨在阐明种族主义如何通过“伦理倒置” 系统性地逆转日常伦理，构建其自我辩护的规范体系。研究指出：在亲缘关系中，责任发生错位，人物在伦理自觉中仍走向失范；在姻缘关系中，欲望被政治化为维系种族边界的工具，表现为“道德化渴望”与“堕落化占有”的双重模式；在血缘关系中，“逆伦理”性达至顶峰——血缘触发“白人恐慌”，白人父权借“理性意志”将混血生命判为“污染”，从而将保护生命的伦理义务倒置为排除生命的暴力。至此，“伦理”沦为清除行动的修辞工具。《威廉斯多普》由此呈现了一个伦理结构失衡却依靠 “伦理倒置”逻辑持续运转的社会图景。这表明种族隔离不仅是一种政治制度，更是一套深度内化、以伦理倒置为核心运作的意识形态系统。小说超越具体历史语境，凭借对“逆伦理”机制的洞察，成为审视权力侵蚀伦理、身份在伦理废墟上重建的后殖民文学典范。
关键词：博斯曼；《威廉斯多普》；逆伦理；亲缘；姻缘；血缘
作者简介：张梦伟，杭州电子科技大学外国语学院硕士研究生，研究方向：非洲文学。电邮：2786846168@qq.com。谭惠娟（通讯作者），电子科技大学外国语学院特聘教授，研究方向：英美文学，非洲文学，比较文学。电邮：huijuantan03@163.com。
Title：From Ethics to Counter-Ethics: Disintegrations in the Order of Kinship, Marriage, and Blood in Wilhelmstorp
Abstract: Herman Charles Bosman's posthumous novel Wilhelmstorp profoundly exposes the ethical predicament underlying South Africa's racial issues. Employing the methodology of ethical literary criticism, this paper analyzes the systematic distortion of kinship, marital, and blood ties under apartheid as depicted in the novel, proposing the core concept of “counter-ethics.” The aim is to elucidate how racism, through a mechanism of “ethical inversion,” systematically reverses everyday ethics to construct a self-justifying normative system. The study argues that: in kinship relations, responsibility becomes displaced, with characters veering into transgression despite ethical awareness; in marital relations, desire is politicized into an instrument for maintaining racial boundaries, manifesting in a dual pattern of “moralized yearning” and “degenerate possession”; in blood relations, the nature of “counter-ethics” reaches its zenith—blood ties trigger “white panic,” leading white patriarchy to employ “rational will” in condemning mixed-race life as “pollution,” thereby inverting the ethical imperative to protect life into a violence that excludes it. Consequently, “ethics” itself is reduced to a mere rhetorical tool for eradication. Wilhelmstorp thus presents a social panorama where the ethical structure is fundamentally unbalanced yet continues to operate, sustained precisely by the logic of “ethical inversion.” This demonstrates that apartheid was not merely a political system but a deeply internalized ideological system whose core operation relied on inverting ethics. Transcending its specific historical context, the novel, through its incisive critique of the “counter-ethics” mechanism, stands as a postcolonial literary classics for examining how power erodes ethical foundations and how identity is reconstructed upon the ruins of ethics.
Keywords: Bosman; Wilhelmstorp; Counter-ethics; Kinship; Marriage; Blood Ties
Author Biographies: Zhang Mengwei, Master’s Candidate at the School of Foreign Languages, Hangzhou Dianzi University. Research Area: African literature. E-mail: 2786846168@qq.com. Tan Huijuan (Corresponding Author), Distinguished Professor at the School of Foreign Languages, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Research Areas: British and American literature, African Literature, Comparative Literature. E-mail: huijuantan03@163.com.
Received: 19 Mar 2026 / Revised: 21 Apr 2026 / Accepted: 21 Apr 2026 / Published online: 30 Apr 2026 / Print published: 30 May 2026.
