主动表达的“他者”——论20世纪70年代以来的本土裔美国文学批评

Native American Literary Criticism since the 1970s

20世纪70年代以来本土裔美国文学批评进入了一个全新的发展阶段。文学创作的空前繁荣,自我意识的觉醒,理论领域的拓展都为这一时期本土裔美国文学批评的发展创造了条件。本土裔美国学者主动参与到本民族文学、文化的批评与重构活动当中。他们一开始以"他者"的姿态出现,将印第安文化本质化,并将其看作一个与欧洲美国文化完全不同的体系;随后他们将目光转向民族文化内部,提出了部落现实主义的构想,更加强化了这种"他者"意识;随着研究的不断深入,文化的融合主义又成为新的热点。本土裔美国文学研究领域并没有形成一个统一的声音,而开放性正是这一领域的魅力所在。本土裔美国学者的批评活动为美国少数族裔文学研究提供了一个"他者"表达的典范。

Since the 1970s,Native American literary criticism has entered a new phase of development.The prosperity of Native American literary works,the increasing self-consciousness of Native American people and the expansion of the literary theory field have all contributed to the favorable conditions for the development of Native American literary criticism.Native American scholars have involved themselves in the reconstruction of their cultural and literary criticism as well.Some scholars take cultural essentialism as a necessary strategy.They insist that American Indian culture is a system different from the Euro-American one and they are the 'Other' in American mainstream society.Arguing that all tribal cultures are different from each other,other scholars reject essentialism and turn to tribal realism which in fact strengthens the awareness of 'Otherness'.With the development of these studies,more and more Native American scholars have become interested in cultural amalgamation.On the whole,Native American literary criticism is a self-consciously open-ended area that provides a model for other ethnic minority literary criticisms in America.