《曾在天涯》和《陪读夫人》的比较解读

Comparing Once Being at the End of the World and Companion to Husband in His Overseas Study

在海外华文文学的文本中,不同的性别角色和叙事主体对婚姻这一主题有着不同向度的文学叙述。通过对北美华文作家阎真的《曾在天涯》和王周生的《陪读夫人》两部长篇小说文本的解读,我们看到的是不同性别的出国陪读者,有着同样的阶级地位、社会文化背景,有着类似的世俗生活、人生遭遇和情感困惑,但其主体的婚姻结局却呈现出完全不同的命运和结局。而这种不同的结局,折射出的却是一种集体无意识的民族心理和根深蒂固的文化传统。

As seen in Overseas Chinese Literature, characters and narrators of different genders are divided about their view and narrative of marriage. Through a close reading of the two novels Once Being at the End of the World and Companion to Husband in His Overseas Study, the present author concludes that different companions of different genders in overseas study in fact acquire the same social status and cultural background and share similar social lives, experiences and emotional predicaments, but their marriages end up very much differently. Such various endings refract a national psychology of collective unconscious derived from the ingrained cultural tradition.