美国乡土作家哈特眼中的中国人形象

The Chinese in the Eyes of American Local-color Writer Harte

布勒特·哈特是美国文学开始走向独立时的“乡土文学”作家,他有关中国人的创作是其“乡土文学”的重要组成部分,作者是把中国人当作神秘的“他者”来展示的,表达了两个有着截然不同的文化背景的民族在相遇时的自然、正常的感受。哈特因幽默诗《异教徒中国佬》而风糜全美国;他对神秘的“他者”的描绘隐含着一种妖气,但是比较客观的超然冷漠中带有揶揄的成份;他展示的神秘的“他者”形象让人难以忘怀,因为这不仅与美国文化背景中那个时代特定的社会语境有关,更重要的是有着他个人独特的文化背景的印记,这使得美国读者和中国读者能够比较容易地走进他的乡土文学世界中,从而体会两种文化冲突和共存的境遇。

Bret Harte is one of the local-color writers as American literature became independent. His writing about Chinese is all integral part of his local-color literature. He described Chinese as mysterious ＂he＂, which shows the natural, normal feeling of the two nations with completely different cultural background when they met. His humorous poem ＂The Heathen Chinese＂ won him popularity throughout the country.. His description of mysterious ＂he＂ is a little recondite, but a little teasing in his objective apathy. The readers are deeply impressed by his mysterious ＂he＂. It is not only because it is closely connected with the given social context of that time in American cultural background. What is more important is that his unique character under the cultural background is inside, which is easy for both American and Chinese readers to go into his local-color literature to experience the conflict and coexistence of two different cultures.