牛仔旧梦难圆——麦卡锡西部小说的文化失落感

Cowboy Dream Difficult to be Realized——The Sense of Cultural Loss in Cormac McCarthy's Western Novels

麦卡锡是当代美国西部小说的重要代表作家之一,他的西部小说深深地刻印着现代社会和人文环境的变迁对西部文化和牛仔文化的冲击,在保留了传统西部小说中的荒原、牛仔、拓荒精神、英雄侠义等诸多元素的同时,更加凸显了新时代背景下西部文化的变迁,反映了新时代西部小说经历的审美维度的巨变。他的西部小说设置在新时代消费主义的背景之下,不仅解构了牛仔身份,还消解了浪漫的英雄神话,给读者以深深的文化失落感。

Cormac McCarthy is one of the most important representative western writers in America. His western novels mark the great impact of the changes of the modern society and humanistic environment on the western culture and cowboy culture. With all the important elements inherited from the traditional western novels, such as wild land, cowboy, pioneer spirit, hero and justice, his western novels focus more on the changes of the western culture in the modern society to reflect the great change of the western writers＇ aesthetic dimension. His western novels, against a background of modern consumerism, deconstruct the cowboy identity as well as the romantic hero myth to bring a strong sense of cultural loss.