贝西·黑德的人民文学观

Bessie Head’s View on People’s Literature

国外马克思主义文艺者对毛泽东《在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话》中提出"文学为什么人"的问题及其答案有高度的认同。享誉世界的非洲作家贝西·黑德受中国特色人民文学观的影响,提出"敬畏人民"的创作思想。贝西·黑德早期在南非受到共产主义思想影响,流亡博茨瓦纳后,与非洲和欧美进步期刊保持密切联系,她的人民文学观是非洲知识分子通过融入当地民众自我改造的一种努力,并不断从中国发展信息中得到激励。她后期致力于非洲历史著作创作,采用表达人民之声和描绘人民眼中的历史伟人的创作路线。虽然没有直接受到中国人民文学作品的影响,但是她的作品所展示的非洲人民对抗殖民统治、参与现代农业社会改革、发展现代教育的斗志、热情和行动和相同题材的中国文学作品有惊人的相似之处,这正是人民文学观对非洲作家产生重要影响的明证之一。

Foreign Marxist writers and artists highly agree with the answer to the question of“literature for whom”raised by Mao Zedong in “Talk at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art”. The worldly-renowned African writer Bessie Head was influenced by the literary theory of“people’s literature”developed in China and put forward her thought of“reverence for the people”in relation to literary creation. Bessie was influenced by the communism in South Africa in her youth. After her exile in Botswana,she maintained close ties with progressive journals in Africa and other continents. As an African intellectual,her acceptance of people’s literature was a sign of effort to transform herself through close contact with local people and it was inspired constantly by the information that she got about China’s development. She later devoted herself to the creation of African historical works,adopting the creative route of conveying the voice of the people and depicting the great men in African history through the eyes of the people. Not directly influenced by the works created by Chinese writers advocating people’s literature,her works are surprisingly similar to Chinese works of the same theme,showing African people’s fighting spirit,enthusiasm,and action in resisting colonial rules,participating in modern agricultural and social reforms,and developing modern education. This is one of the clear proofs of the important influence of people’s literature on African writers.