以小说的方式言说文化:文化悬念小说价值阐释——兼评宋耀良《西夏谜城》

Talk about Culture in Form of Novels:Value Explanation of Cultural Suspense Novels

与传统悬念小说不同,新悬念小说包括知识悬疑小说和文化悬念小说,在满足读者的解谜欲之外,更多地着眼于人的求知欲,激发人的好奇心。这种类型小说中的文化悬念小说是国外知识悬疑小说中国化后引入的一个概念,传承了"文以载道"的传统,以小说的方式言说文化。宋耀良的《西夏谜城》在文化悬念小说作品中颇具代表性。作品以小说的形式来解谜一个消失的王朝———西夏,让被称为"东方金字塔"的西夏王陵、拥有过"中世纪图书馆"的黑城遗址和"乍视字皆可识,熟识无一字可识"的西夏文字等诸多西夏之谜在普通人的眼里绽放出生命的"音容笑貌、歌舞哀哭"。

Compared with traditional ones, new suspense novels include knowledge suspense ones and cultural suspense ones, aiming at satisfying people＇s desire to learn and arousing their curiosity other than solving puzzles. Cultural suspense novel is a concept after foreign knowledge suspense novels were introduced to China and became localized, which carries a tradition of ＂essays explaining principles＂ and talks about culture through novels. The Puzzle City of West Xia written by Song Yaoliang is a typical work, which discloses the puzzle of a disappeared dynasty——West Xia—— through form of a novel. It lets puzzles of the West Xia royal tomb called ＂Pyramid in the East＂, site of black city that used to own ＂library in middle ages＂, and its letters become alive in the eyes of common people.