遭遇解放——论《东风·西风》(上篇)的女性叙事

Face to Face with Liberation——On the Feminist Narration in the First Half of East Wind:West Wind

《东风.西风》是赛珍珠创作的第一部长篇小说,是以一个年轻中国女子独白的形式讲述的故事,反映了"五四"新文化运动前后中国社会传统与现代的交锋、新旧势力的冲突,强调了现代化的力量是如何改变了中国传统的家庭结构和妇女的命运。从社会学和叙事学两种视角深入分析上篇的女性叙事,可以看出,中国妇女在现代化进程中所遭遇的解放必须面对传统文化早已内化的压抑和西方化的自我镜像的挑战,还有男性他者的强权。赛珍珠让沉默的中国女性发出了声音,这也使得《东风.西风》成为一部备受忽视但却颇有价值的作品和文献。

Pearl S. Buck＇ s first novel East Wind： West Wind tells us a story by the pattern of a Chinese young woman＇ s monologue, reflects the conflict between tradition and modernity, between the new and old powers in the Chinese society around the May 4th New Cultural Movement, and stresses how the influence of modernity has changed the traditional Chinese family structure and women＇ s fate. This paper analyses the first half of the novel＇ s feminist narration from the two perspectives of sociology and narratology, pointing out that during the course of modernization, Chinese women＇ s liberation must face the inborn suppression of the traditional culture, the challenge of westernized self image and the domination of the male other. Buck lets the habitually silent Chinese women voice their feelings and thus turns the novel into a valuable yet often ignored documentary book.