论多克托罗纽约书写的文化内涵

On the cultural implications of E. L. Doctorow's New York writing

美国后现代派作家E.L.多克托罗的多部小说都以纽约为背景,书写普通纽约人的生活。通过解析多克托罗借助小说绘制的纽约文化地图,探讨他对纽约曼哈顿、布朗克斯区及曼哈顿的下东区不同态度背后的文化动因,指出他旨在将自己的"犹太裔""美国人""纽约客"这三种身份合而为一,他的视野也不仅仅局限于犹太移民,而是关注不同文化背景的人群在纽约这个国际大都市如何共生共存的情况,具有"混杂性世界主义"的特征,因此创造出一种独特的都市美学,彰显出他与美国其他后现代派作家的不同之处。

Most fictional works by the American postmodern writer Edgar Lawrence Doctorow are set in the New YorkCity and depict the life of ordinary New Yorkers. The present essay, by applying relative theories in CulturalGeography, aims at exploring the ways and characteristics of Doctorow’s city writing and how the author draws acultural map of New York from his own perspective. It tends to disclose the reasons why Doctorow seems to havedifferent attitudes towards Manhattan, the Bronx and the Lower East Side. Research findings indicate that Doctorowactually wants to combine being a Jew, an American and a New Yorker as a trinity in his own cultural identity. Besides,what he concerns is not merely life of Jewish immigrants in New York, but rather how people of different culturalbackgrounds co-exist in this international metropolis. Thus, his works reveal the characteristics of “vernacularcosmopolitanism” proposed by Homi Bhabha, and display a special urban aesthetics, which might make him distinctfrom other postmodern writers in America.