“他者之镜”——评伊丽莎白·冯·海靖的书信体小说《他未曾收到的那些书信》

“Mirror of Others”——An Analysis of Elisabeth von Heyking's Epistolary Novel Letters He Hasn't Received

书信体小说《他未曾收到的那些书信》是德国20世纪初重要女性作家伊丽莎白·冯·海靖的成名作,小说以西方人的视角、西方人的叙述方式讲述义和团运动前夕的中国,在一定程度上较真实反映了当时的时代风貌。原本深受帝国主义殖民思想影响的作家借着这部小说的创作完成了自己思想上的巨变。小说深刻批评帝国主义和殖民主义本性,打破了用欧洲文化中心主义和殖民主义权势话语构建起来的东方主义的思维模式,提供给中国读者一面更好了解自己历史的"他者之镜"。

Letters He Hasn＇t Received is a famous epistolary novel written by Elisabeth von Heyking, an important female writer in the early 20th century in Germany. The novel written from a westerner＇s perspective and in a western narrative style tells about China in the eve of the Boxer Rebellion, which unfolds to some extent the Zeitgeist of the time, and the author, originally influenced by the imperialistic colonial thinking, has completed her own ideological upheaval in the process of writing the novel. This novel criticizes profoundly the nature of imperialism and colonialism, breaks the way of thinking of Orientalism which was built up with the discourse of Eurocentrialism and colonialism and provides the Chinese readers with a ＂mirror of others＂ for a better understanding of their own history.