论《愚弄鸦族》的后殖民叙事与语言特征

Linguistic Features and Post-Colonial Power Relations in Fools Crow

詹姆斯·韦尔奇的《愚弄鸦族》通过英语和黑脚语在叙事者话语和人物交流层面的分布逆转殖民者和被殖民者的权力格局。美国白人医生使用黑脚语作为叙事语言的“掺混”现象说明存在超越民族偏见、桥接文化差异的可能性。但是,这种殖民者与被殖民者的二元对立或“掺混”模式造成鸦人和梅花马人的部落语言在话语层面遭到“吞噬”的可怕现象,揭示了被殖民者内部复杂的权力关系。然而,语言不通的部落间使用手语交流符合故事发生时期的历史情形,突出了被殖民者之间的共同点和差异性。

The power relation of the colonizer and the colonized in James Welch’s Fools Crow is subverted through the distribution of English and Blackfoot in the discourse of the narrator as well as character communications.The“bleeding”where the Anglo-American doctor applies Blackfoot in his narrative implies the possibility of overcoming national prejudices and bridging the gaps of cultures.However,the binary opposition or blending between the colonizer and the colonized leads to the horrific“glottophagie”of the tribal languages of the Crows and the Spotted Horse People,revealing complex dynamic powers among the colonized.Nevertheless,tribes of different languages resort to the sign language as a means of communication in resonance with the historical circumstances of stories,highlighting both commonality and heterogeneity within the colonized.