彼黍离离:非洲风景与殖民主义——《战时诸梦:童年回忆录》解读

Dense Millet: African Landscape and Colonialism: Interpretation of Dreams in a Time of War

肯尼亚著名作家恩古吉,在他的新作《战时诸梦:童年回忆录》中,透过历史的眼光审视非洲风景,将其同欧洲殖民主义结合起来,揭示出风景的政治、经济属性,使其笔下之风景的非洲风情,跃然纸上;同时,这种"风景历史化"的写法,也是一种反写策略,有力反驳了那些将非洲看成是一个没有自我意识、没有历史的"暗黑之地"的观点。

Literary landscape not only sets out geographic space, but represents cultural, political and social atmosphere in which characters inhabit, and hints at the author＇s intention. When depicting landscape in Dreams in a Time of War, Ngugi Wa Thiong＇o colors it with African history, implying political and economic aspects of natural landscape, and the relationship between African and western colonialism. At the same time, to historize African landscape is also a strategy to write against the clich e that Africa is a ＂aark land＂.