论赛珍珠建构中国形象的写作策略

Pearl Buck's Writing Strategy in Constructing Images of China

在赛珍珠之前,许多西方作家都曾在作品中描写过中国。但是他们笔下的中国,不管是作为被丑化的对象还是被赞美的对象,总是根据西方人自身的需要,而并非中国的实际来描写的。赛珍珠的写作则与此相反,她代表了一种真正去了解异国并诉诸笔端的新的写作姿态。为了建构新的中国形象,赛珍珠在叙事模式的转变、民俗描写、人物选择、语言风格、对中国古典小说的模仿等五个方面采取了与以往完全不同的写作策略。

Before Pearl Buck, a great number of western writers had depicted China. In their works China, whether as an object of glorification or vilification, is not depicted as it is but as meets the needs of westerners. On the contrary, her writings present a fresh attitude toward understanding a foreign country and culture. To construct new images of China, she employs a writing strategy which is totally different from her predecessors. The paper is to deal with the subject from five aspects: (1) transformation of narrative patterns; (2) description of folk customs; (3) choice of characters; (4) style of language; and (5) imitation of classical Chinese novels.