本土文学中的东方幻象:刘易斯创作中的中国文化

The Oriental Illusion in Native Literature:Chinese Culture Depiction in Sinclair Levis’s Works

作为首位获得诺贝尔文学奖的本土作家,辛克莱·刘易斯在整个美国文学史上举足轻重。他从未踏足中国,但在其小说(特别是《大街》中),遥远、古老、多彩的中国文化交织出斑驳的东方色彩,其中涌动着作者对改变现状、建设更美好国家的诉求。以刘易斯经典文本为基础,本文通过考察作品中反复出现的、具备浓重隐喻意味的中国服饰、餐饮、工艺品、地域风貌等乌托邦式的中国文化书写,探讨美国本土作品中中国形象生成的意向结构。刘易斯对中国文化浪漫书写的初心不过是将中国作为异域文明来建构本土文化自身投射的“他者”空间,用“他”言说自我、倾诉初衷,表达作家本人对本土社会文化现状的愤懑、焦炙,希冀自身文化中的有害观念在“他”的映衬下,逐渐委顿甚至被剥离剔除。

As the first native writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature,Sinclair Lewis occupies an important position in the history of American literature.Although he has never set foot on China,in his novels,especially in Main Street,the distant,antique and colorful Chinese culture is interwoven with mottled oriental color,and the author’s demands for changing the status quo and building a beautiful country are surging.Based on Lewis’s classic texts,this article explores the intentional structure of Chinese image generation in American native works by investigating the utopian and metaphorical Chinese cultural elements,such as Chinese clothing,catering,handicrafts and regional features.Lewis’s original intention of romantically writing Chinese culture is to construct the“other”space projected by native culture and take Chinese civilization as a reference to express the writer’s dissatisfaction and anxiety about the local social and cultural conditions,hoping that the harmful ideas in his own culture will be gradually frustrated or even removed under the background of“other”.