文明与野蛮的分野--《起落架》的东方主义解读

The Division Between Civilization and Barbarism:Orientalist Interpretation of Landing Gear

《起落架》是当代加拿大作家凯特·普林格以巴基斯坦偷渡客经历的坠机事件为脚本创作的小说。《起落架》在情节上关注到了少数族裔身处主流社会的困境,以及主流社会群体对少数族裔的误解,从而引发对于二者文明或野蛮的思考。作家在以小人物的视角直视社会问题的同时,构建了东方与西方、文明与野蛮的两对二元对立:被定义为野蛮而实则文明的“东方人”概念,既是西方对东方刻板印象的外显,又是对以巴基斯坦人为代表的“东方人”的敌视,自诩为文明实则野蛮的西方人,既是西方文化霸权主义的体现,又是妄图用自身价值观影响他者的显现。

Landing Gear is a novel written by contemporary Canadian writer Kate Pullinger,based on a real accident of a Pakistani stowaway.The plot focuses on the plight of ethnic minorities in the mainstream society and the misunderstanding of ethnic minorities by mainstream social groups,and thus leads to reflections upon whether they are civilized or barbarous.While looking directly at social problems from the perspective of normal people,two pairs of binary opposites:between the East and the West,and between civilization and barbarism are constructed.The concept of“Oriental,”defined as barbarism,shall be redefined as civilized,which is not only the manifestation of the stereotype of the East by theWest,but also the Occident’s hostility towards the eastnerers presented by Pakistanis.The Occident who claim to be civilized but are barbaric instead are not only the embodiment of Western cultural hegemonism,but also the reflection of trying to influence others with their own values.From the theoretical per‐spective of Said’s Orientalism,this paper deconstructs the relationship between the Orient and the Occident from the angle of“civilization and barbarism”,and then puts forward the solution of building a community of human destiny to dispel the concept of the Other,and expresses the author’s initiative to eliminate racial prejudice in the context of globalization.