“游泳到中国去”:田纳西·威廉斯《鬣蜥之夜》中的中国想象

“Swim out to China”:Tennessee Williams’s imagination of China in The Night of the Iguana

《鬣蜥之夜》中最引人注目的莫过于田纳西·威廉斯对于中国的个人想象性书写,频频出现的东方元素赋予了此剧前所未有的积极意义。中国成为主人公香农渴望到达的理想彼岸,使他不禁发出“游泳到中国去”的呼喊。基于比较文学形象学理论,从社会集体想象、言说他者和言说自我三个维度分析威廉斯戏剧《鬣蜥之夜》中所呈现的中国形象,力图揭示威廉斯构建中国这一“他者”形象背后的理想诉求和价值观念,这对于中美两国重新审视自我,加强跨文化间的合作与交流极为有益。

The most striking one in The Night of the Iguana is Tennessee Williams’s personal imagination of China,and the recurring the Oriental elements endow this play with unprecedented positive meanings.China has become the ideal side that the hero Shannon yearns for reaching,which prompts him to give a cry of swimming out to China.Based on imagology theory of comparative literature,this paper analyzes the image of China in Williams’s The Night of the Iguana from three dimensions—social collective imagination,the expression of the Other and the projection of the Self,trying to reveal Williams’s ideal pursuits and values through the construction of China as the Other.This is extremely beneficial for both China and America to reexamine themselves and strengthen intercultural cooperation and communication.