叙述主体的历史意识：论马来西亚英语作家欧大旭的《和谐丝庄》

《和谐丝庄》是旅英马来西亚华裔作家欧大旭(Tash Aw)的处女作。这部以第二次世界大战时期马来西亚为背景的历史小说,通过西方惯用的不可靠叙事手法展示了英语文学中不多见的东南亚华人视角和文化身份的复杂性。小说的一大特点是其重心不在主人公的生涯,而在于用三位观察者分别讲述这个人的故事。每一位叙述者所呈现的Johnny都是谜一般的神秘人物。在这部小说里,对岁月的回忆比岁月本身更有魅力。小说中三位叙述主体对同一历史作了完全不同的诠释。所以《和谐丝庄》不仅是一部历史小说,更是一本启发后人如何理解历史的书。对该小说叙述者的分析是剖析该小说的核心之所在,亦是本文的论述重心。

Harmony Silk Factory is the debut novel of Tash Aw,who was born in China,grew up in Malaysia,now is living in London.This book,set in the WWII Malay,presents the rarely- seen Chinese capitalists and political activists in the Southeast Asian society during the British control and Japanese invasion.Besides,the book is marked not by the story of the protagonist but rather,by the multi-layered narrations of the personal history of the hero by its three close observers.In this sense,their respective explanation of history,in which,the ever evasive images of the protagonist mirror the very image of the different narrators.And this novel turns out more of a story on how to approach the colonial history.