“否定”与“协商”——论《郊区佛爷》中的身份危机与身份策略

“Negation” and “Negotiation”: On Identity Crisis and Identity Strategy in The Buddha of Suburbia

哈尼夫·库雷西是当代英国最著名的少数族裔作家。他的《郊区佛爷》是一部探讨后殖民主义语境下的文化认同与身份危机等热点问题的杰作。面对生存困境与应对身份危机时,小说中的移民采取了不同的身份策略:采取"否定"策略的移民以悲剧性的死亡结束了自己的一生;而采取"协商"策略的移民在印英文化的"间隙"中找到了更多的生存空间。两种不同的命运结局表明库雷西对建构新的文化身份认同的反本质主义立场,隐含着他对英国主流文化霸权及其种族歧视的深刻反思与深度批判。

Hanif Kureishi is one of the prominent contemporary minority writers in Britain; his The Buddha of Suburbia is a masterpiece of exploring such important topics as cultural identity and crisis. In face of existential plight and identity crisis, the immigrants in the novel adopt different strategies： the one adopting the ＂Negation＂ strategy ends up with a tragic death, whereas the other who adopts the ＂Negotiation＂ strategy gets more existential room in the liminal space between British and India cultures. Two different life stories display the anti-essentialist position of Kureishi in the construction of new cultural identity, implying his deep rethinking of and profound critique on British dominant ideology and racial discrimination.