阿加莎“东方小说”中的旅行书写与殖民主义

Travel Writing and Colonialism in Agatha Christie’s Oriental Novels

阿加莎·克里斯蒂创作了二战前后的“东方小说”,多围绕英国人在英属殖民地的险恶经历展开,带有明显的殖民主义和旅行书写特征。《褐衣男子》中的“帝国凝视”赋予白人殖民者绝对的权威性和优越感,同时又“他者化”非洲土著。但是东方想象、“他者”镜像以及殖民话语权威,却在《他们来到巴格达》中被巴格达的多元混杂空间中打破和消解。这些差异与阿加莎多年殖民地生活和工作经历有关,也能从中看出她对帝国殖民扩展的反思。

The novels created by Agatha Christie from 1920s to 1950s are mainly built around the thrilling experience of Britons in the British colonies,with typical features of colonialism and travel writing.The imperial gaze in the The Man in the Brown Suit ensures the authority and superiority of the white colonists,and meanwhile describes the African natives as“the Other”.The hybrid space of Baghdad in They Came to Baghdad breaks the oriental imagination,the images of the other and the authority of the colonial discourse.These differences result from the decades of life and work experience of Christie in the mid-east colonies,and also show her reflection to the imperial expansion and colonization.