当代英语丝路文学的中国形象及其体用之辨

Imagination of Silk Roads in Contemporary English Literature and Substance&Function of Chinese Images

当代英语文学存在大量“丝路”元素,这决定了丝路文学的外延可以拓展至国内边关文学之外的外国文学。实际上,当代英语文学围绕以“丝绸”“蚕虫”“茶叶”“突厥”及“中国”为核心意象,对中国形象展开了丝路想象;这些中国形象在乌托邦化与污名化的两极钟摆运行,它们虽然反映了“英”方对传统及现代中国的想象和虚构,但更多折射的是“英”方的自我言说;丝路中国形象是“英”方的器用之物,它们服务于“英”方自我言说的本体,即丝路中国形象要么成为了“英”方解构自我,诉求革新的参照,要么成为“英”方自证自我优越,确保中心地位的他者。惟有如此认知当代英语文学中的中国形象,我们才能从“英”方的中国诉说中更好地体认自我,促进中国文化的自省和自信。

There are a large number of"Silk Roads"elements in contemporary English literature,which determines that"silk road literature"can not only be represented in domestic frontier literature but also in foreign literature.Practically,core images as"silk","silk worm","tea","Tartar"and"China"have been adopted in the contemporary English literature so as to visualize the images of China through The Silk Road.These China images have been regularly changed from Utopian to stigmatized.Not only can they show English-speaking countries'imagination and fictionalization of the traditional and modern China,but reflect a self-utterance of their own essence.In other words,China images in The Silk Road are only a tool available for the English-speaking countries to serve for their own ideology.Namely,Chinese images in The Silk Road are definitely a reference to the English-speaking countries when they appeal for self-deconstruction and reformation;or Chinese images are"otherness"who proves its own superiority to the Oriental.Only in this way of knowing Chinese images in contemporary English literature,can we form a better understanding of ourselves from the English depiction of China,thus promoting a sense of introspectiveness and confidence of Chinese culture.