《死亡与国王的马夫》中的雅西宗教文化冲突

Rereading the Yoruban-Western Cultural Clash in Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman

本文以当代后殖民主义及文化研究理论,从宗教文化角度重新解读沃勒·索因卡代表作《死亡和国王的马夫》,批判了剧作者所持的“普适”人性观点及其对人物悲剧的狭隘解释,赋予剧中的悲剧实质以新的文化内涵。对于英国殖民者来说,宗教生死观是实施西方文化霸权的主要依据;而对于雅鲁巴人来说,它则成为维护其民族身份意识的主要途径。这场雅西文化冲突的悲剧结局告诫人们,只有摈弃普适人性和文化霸权思想,消除民族中心主义心态,培养一种“积极而包容”的人文主义精神,才能消除文化冲突,促进各种文化之间的理解与融合。

This article applies the contemporary theories of post-colonialism and cultural studies to the rereading of Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman from a religious-cultural perspective. It hopes to render a critical view to the playwright’s notions of Universalism and tragedy, and add to the play’s tragedy a new cultural significance. The difference in the religious understanding of life and death is here the focus of the Yoruban-western cultural clash, both a major excuse for western colonists to exercise their domineering cultural hegemony and a vital means for Yorubans to sustain their endangered national identity. Only after the eradication of the Universalism ideology and cultural hegemony or ethnocentrism can mutual understanding and amalgamation between cultures be achieved.