十字路口的印第安人——解读阿莱克西《保留地布鲁斯》中的生存与发展主题

American Indians at the Crossroads:Reading the Survival and Development Theme in Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues

在现代化进程中,生存和发展是发展中国家和民族面临的普遍问题,对传统的态度是解决这个问题的关键之一。本文研究阿莱克西《保留地布鲁斯》中的生存与发展主题,希望借此讨论化解社会发展过程中传统与现代性矛盾的路径。在这个主题上,安德鲁斯认为,小说欲为保留地印第安人找到一条"新路",但这条路是个"死胡同",因为小说陷入了摩尼二元论。本文借鉴多元现代性理论,从传统与现代性的关系入手,解读小说中印第安人与白人、印第安文化与西方文化之间的矛盾,尝试超越这些矛盾之间的二元对立,认为这条"新路"没有被堵死。小说充满希望的结尾至少暗示着年轻一辈印第安人有望走出保留地,走向大世界,带着传统,走向具有印第安特色的现代性或后现代性。

In the process of modernization, survival and development are a general issue for all developing nations and ethnicities. One of the keys to this issue is people＇s attitude toward their tradition. Focusing on the survival and development theme in Sherman Alexie＇s Reservation Blues, this paper attempts to find a way out for the conflict between tradition and modernity. Scott Andrews reads the novel as one presenting reservation Indians with a new road which turns out to be a dead end because the novel ultimately falls victim to the Manichean logic. With the concept of multiple modernities, this paper tries to unravel the conflicts between American Indians and the Whites, and between American Indian and Western cultures in terms of tradition and modernity. It argues that the new road does not lead to a dead end. Instead, the hopeful ending of the novel promises young Indians a way out of the reservation. They will move to the big world with their tradition, striving for a modernity or postmodernity with American Indian characteristics.