欧文《阿斯托里亚》中的皮毛贸易与帝国建构

The Fur Trade and Empire Construction in Washington Irving’s Astoria

《阿斯托里亚》是美国作家华盛顿·欧文以书写阿斯托皮毛事业为主线的西部题材作品。作为与合众国一起成长的第一代作家,欧文对自己的文学使命有着非常清晰的认识,体现在该文本中,就是透过皮毛贸易这个多面镜,帮助美国完成大陆扩张、财富掠夺以及海外殖民的文学想象,从而彰显了以他为代表的美国人的帝国主义情结。欧文在文学文本中所展现的西部神话想象和帝国建构的美国精神为之后西部文学的书写提供了一种美学范式,但美国西部探险多以追求土地、资源和财富为目的,却打着爱国主义和民族事业的幌子将其扩张心理和殖民意识正义化的行为,必须予以严厉批判。

In Astoria, a book about the American west by Washington Irving, the narrative is centered around Astor’s fur trade. As a writer of the first generation growing up with the United States, Irving had a very clear understanding about his literary mission, namely, as manifested in this text, using the fur trade as a polygonal mirror to help America accomplish its literary imagination about continental expansion, wealth plundering, and overseas colonization, thus revealing the imperial complex of the Americans like him. Irving sets up an esthetic paradigm for later western writings by delineating an imagination about the western myths and an American spirit of empire construction in his literary text. However, America’s westward explorations were mostly aimed at plundering the land, resource, and wealth. Therefore, its attempt to justify its expansionist mentality and colonial consciousness on the pretext of patriotism and national cause must be firmly condemned.