伊迪丝·华顿的去帝国文本

Edith Wharton's Deimperialist Texts

20世纪90年代以来,一些研究者指责伊迪丝·华顿的帝国情感和其作品的帝国主义美学。诚然,华顿的作品中的人物活动往往有着帝国扩张和殖民活动的时代背景,但就其想象性小说作品而言,华顿并非一位帝国主义小说家。即使在那些与帝国和殖民有着各种关联的作品中,帝国实践和殖民活动也仅仅是缺场的历史背景或场外情节。实际上,华顿的想象性小说作品不仅是不写帝国和殖民的去帝国文本,而且还可能隐含着对帝国主义和殖民主义的批判。

Since the 1990 s,Edith Wharton has been denigrated for her imperialist sensibility and aesthetics.Admittedly,her works often depict activities set in the historical contexts of imperialism and colonialism.However,as far as her imaginative works of fiction are concerned,Wharton does not appear to be an imperialist novelist,for the majority of these works present no imperial practices and colonial activities. Even in the works that directly or indirectly address such practices and activities,they are as a rule eitherabsent or off-stage. In fact,Wharton adopts a deimperialist textual strategy that is sometimes implicitly critical of imperialism and colonialism.