马克·吐温的“东方主义”再思考——以《马克·吐温的中国观》为例

Reconsidering Mark Twain's Orientalism:The Example of Mark Twain's Perception of China

《外国文学评论》2003年第四期刊载的论文《马克·吐温的中国观》从后殖民理论视角展现马克·吐温文化产品中的东方主义。作者用以引证的吐温演说"我也是义和团"中所存在的逻辑悖论和语义重心被"策略化"误读,而这一问题恰恰折射出其论述过程中稀释上下文语境、机械运用理论的弊端。因此,在为马克·吐温的文学粘贴"东方主义"标签时,应该充分对其"非东方主义"的层面给予关注,避免将吐温在某些作品中有关晚清中国人的字面表述简单等同于以中国为"他者"、强化西方中心论的东方主义再现。

Mark Twain's Perception of China,a thesis in Foreign Literary Review,No.4,2003,intends to reveal Twain's orientalism from post-colonial and new-historian perspectives.What is cited as one of Mark Twain's orientalist testimonies,a public address known to some Chinese scholars as 'I Am a Boxer Too',is strategically misread in respect of its logic paradox and semantic focus.This problem mirrors the inadequacy of a violent adoption of post-colonial theories at the cost of contextual coverage.Therefore,to label Twain's literature as 'orientalism',it is necessary to pay full attention to its 'non-orientalist' aspects,and hence to avoid an over-simplified equation between Twain's literal portrayal of Late-Qing Dynasty's subjects and the orientalist representation that sets China as the 'other' and the West the 'centre'.