阐释的焦虑:第三人称视角在《华女阿五》中的运用

Writing Anxiety:On the Third-person Narrative in Jade Snow Wong's Fifth Chinese Daughter

黄玉雪在其自传体小说《华女阿五》中采用了第三人称叙述视角。黄玉雪曾表示第三人称的安排是对中国传统文化的尊重和对中国漠视个体文化的反映。尹晓煌则认为第三人称在这部自传体里的应用是受到了美国自传体小说传统的影响,黄玉雪的说法只是为了使文本具有异国特色,增加小说的销量。黄玉雪借助第三人称叙述视角产生的距离实现了叙述者身份的转换,阐释了她对中国文化的理解,体现了华裔在美国社会寻求自我身份的艰辛历程,但是第三人称的叙述视角也凸显了华裔作家在后殖民的语境中确立其话语权时产生的阐释的焦虑。

The third - person narrative is adopted in Jade Snow Wong＇s first autobiographic novel Fifth Chinese Daughter. Wong states that the third - person- singular style is to show her respect for Chinese traditions and it also reflects cultural disregard for the individual in China. Xiao- huang Yin argues that Wong＇s use of third - person - singular reveals the influence of American autobiographic writing and the so - called Chinese style is just an excuse to help promote the book＇ s sales. This paper contends that the third - person narrative adopted by the author distances the narrator from the hero who actually shares the same name with the narrator and facilitates the narration in terms of the mixture of various Chinese cultural factors from different angles. Thus the third person narrative in this novel helps epitomize the traditional Chinese culture and illustrate the hardship of the Chinese Americans in their pursuit of self- identity. Meanwhile, the adoption of the third - person narrative also exposes the writing anxiety of Chinese American writers in a post- colonial context.