希尔《品梦茶馆》中的文化冲突

Cultural Confrontations in Justin Hill's The Drink and Dream Teahouse

当代英国作家贾斯汀·希尔的"中国三部曲"中的成名作小说《品梦茶馆》享誉世界,被翻译成十一国文字全球发行,先后获得多种文学奖项。西方评论界因此认为希尔对中国了解深入,谙熟中国社会与文化,把他称为"中国作家"。在西方评论界大加赞誉的同时,中国读者不难发现其小说中存在的各种冲突和矛盾。本文通过对小说主要人物大山和方太太的分析以及对葬礼、古尸等一些荒诞怪异细节的剖析来展现文本中暗含着的中西文化、中西意识形态以及传统文化与现代文化之间的对抗。通过对各种冲突表象的集中分析,探究出《品梦茶馆》中各种冲突的原因可以归结为作者个人文化背景、意识形态的偏见和东方主义影响的残存。

The Drink and Dream Teahouse,one of Justin Hill's Trilogy on China,is a novel based on a southern town named Shaoyang in China.It has been well reviewed and translated into 11 languages.With this novel Hill made his name as a famous contemporary writer and won two literary prizes.Western literary critics think so highly of it as they think Hill should be a 'Chinese writer' because Hill portrays China thoroughly enough and because he knows China inside out in his novel,while various cultural confrontations and ideological clashes can be traced by Chinese readers through the analysis of some main characters and some absurd details,such as Dashan,Madame Fan,Mr.Li's funeral and the long dead body,which are very symbolic to expound the hidden conflicts in the society of the reforming small town.There are clashes between Chinese and Western cultures and ideology and even clashes between traditional and modern cultures.All these confrontations are due to Hill's personal culture background,ideological prejudices and deep rooted Orientalism influences.