从《河湾》中的意象看奈保尔笔下的现实与虚幻

Naipaul’s Reality and Illusion Seen from the Images in A Bend in the River

《河湾》记录了＂我＂深入非洲过程中一段辛酸的心灵和肉体之旅,深入探究了私人流放、堕落和政治腐败,表达了奈保尔对新独立的国家建立自己的可行性的政治体制的怀疑。在这部小说中,奈保尔以冥想和叙述作为两条主线,借助于新领地、面具、蚂蚁、尤其是水葫芦等意象,为我们揭示出游走在现实与虚幻之间的无所归依的两个世界。

A Bend in the River chronicles both an internal journey and a physical trek into the heart of Africa. It explores personal exile, political and individual corruption. It expresses Naipaul＇ s skepticism about the ability of newly decolonized nations to forge independent and politically viable identities. In this novel, using imagination and description as the two cues, with the aid of the images -- the New Dominion, masks, ants, especially the water hyacinths, Naipaul exposes for us two rootless worlds roaming about reality and illusion.