是不为也,非不能也——理查德·赖特及其文学创作中的现代主义特征

To Do or Not to Do—On Modernist Traits in Richard Wright’s Literary Writing

理查德·赖特是美国"哈莱姆文艺复兴"后期著名的黑人作家,他的《土生子》和《黑小子》的问世,既标志着自然主义抗议小说的胜利,也遭到美国白人文学界的排斥和某些黑人文学批评家的抨击。本文从论述理查德·赖特的文学贡献与思想局限着手,进一步探讨赖特为什么要放弃现代主义创作手法,而选择现实主义和自然主义相结合的创作方法;通过对赖特的早期短篇代表作《大小子离家》、中期代表长篇《土生子》和《黑小子》的文本剖析,笔者试图揭示理查德·赖特文学创作中的现代主义特征,旨在对理查德·赖特的文学创作技巧、创作动机和文学思想做出更为客观公正的评判。

Richard Wright is a well-known black writer in the latter period of ＂Harlem Renaissance＂ in America. The publication of Native Son and Black Boy marked the triumph of naturalistic protest novel, but the two works were repelled by the white literary circle and depreciated by black literary critics. This paper is devoted first to an elaboration of Richard Wright＇ s literary contribution and limitation, and then moves on to discuss why his literary works highlight a combination of realistic style with naturalistic protest, instead of modern writing. Through an interpretatire analysis of the modernist traits in Richard Wight＇ s representative works, the author tries to illustrate that Richard Wright is also an unconscious modernist, aiming to give a more objective evaluation of the writer＇s literary techniques and motivation.