寄往中国的信:《白虎》中庶民的倾诉欲望

The Desire to Confide in The White Tiger as Exemplified in Letters Sent to China

以七封寄往中国的虚拟信函作载体,当代印度英语作家阿迪加的布克奖小说《白虎》刻画了一个有着强烈倾诉欲望却又得不到倾听的印度青年形象。从整体上看,倾诉对象的状态影响着主人公巴拉姆的言说表现:倾诉对象的缺失让他欲诉无门;虚假的听者让他的倾诉充满矛盾;虚构的听者则打开了他的心扉。他的经历充分表明,印度庶民并非不能言说,而是无人倾听他们的诉求。从倾诉与倾听角度来看,后殖民文学批评需要更加重视倾听的作用和价值。

With seven fictional letters addressed to China, The White Tiger, a Man Booker Prize novel by the Indian novelist Aravind Adiga, portrays an Indian young man Balram, who has strong desire to confide his secrets but gets no audience. Generally speaking, the status of listeners decides the speech performance of Balram：the absence of listeners blocks his will to confide; fake listeners make his confiding performance full of contradictions; and the fictional listener gives a vent for him to open his heart. His experience fully indicates, it is not that Indian subalterns can＇t speak but that they get no listener to confide their appeals. From the point of confiding and listening, postcolonial criticism should lay more emphasis on the function and value of listening.