埃及的鳄鱼:论《安东尼与克莉奥佩特拉》中的异域想象及自我反思

Egyptian Crocodile:Imagination of the Other and Self-Reflection in Antony and Cleopatra

本文对莎士比亚的第五大悲剧《安东尼与克莉奥佩特拉》中的异域想象进行了分析。文章认为,剧作展示了当时欧洲人对东方世界的简单化想象,在此过程中,安东尼恰恰是最为鄙夷"埃及性"的罗马人;莎士比亚虽受时代影响,对罗马/埃及这种二元两分思维模式有所陷入,但又对固化的异域想象进行了调侃与讽刺;剧作最终呈现了罗马人对他者文化有限的认可与接受,但这种认可与接受仍然是在自我与他者二元对立模式下展开的。莎士比亚在剧中就异域想象这个议题的三重描写,充分显示了他在英国海外扩张开端年代所受到的时代影响,及其自身敏锐的文化洞察力。

The paper is an analysis of the imagination of others in Shakespeare＇s Antony and Cleopatra. It holds that the drama displays Europeans＇ abstraction in their imagination of the east, trying to reveal that Antony is in fact the one who finished the construction of negative Egyptian image. It also holds that Shakespeare had such negative cultural abstrac- tion and construction, but was also aware of the falsehood of this type of cultural imagina- tion. That is why many scenes in this drama can be found to satirize the abstraction of cul- tural others, showing an open cultural attitude, though in a limited way. Shakespeare, after all, was both with and against those imperial and colonial imagination of others.