从后殖民角度解读《典型的美国佬》

A Study of Typical American from Postcolonial Perspective

作为当代美国族裔文学的一个分支,华裔美国文学并不属于严格意义上的后殖民文学范畴。但华裔移民及其后代受到西方中心话语的排斥与压迫,经历着某种意义上的文化殖民。因此,后殖民批评,一种具有强烈文化批评色彩、质疑西方中心主义、揭示文本背后东西方复杂意识形态关系的文学批评,非常适合解读一直以来被压制和被边缘化的华裔美国文学作品。在后殖民语境下解读《典型的美国佬》,可以凸现华裔美国女作家任璧莲如何揭露主流文化的殖民本质,如何通过文化杂糅重新定义美国属性,让读者更好地理解其反本质主义的创作立场和解殖民的创作目的。

Chinese American literature, a subfield of contemporary American ethnic minority literature, does not strictly belong to the category of postcolonial literature. Despite the fact that Chinese immigrants have not been under direct colonization, they still have experienced cultural colonization in a sense. Therefore, postcolonialism, a literary criticism, which is of strong cultral criticism, challenges the west-- centerism and reveals the complex eastern and western ideological relationships beneath the text, is quite suitable for the interpretation of those oppressed and marginalized Chinese American literary works. To study Typical American in postcolonial context highlights how Gish Jen exposes the colonial nature of mainstream culture, and how she redefines American attribute by means of cultural hybridity, thus a better understanding of her anti--essentialism and decolonization.