非洲民间故事的文学言说与存在反思

Literary Articulation and Existential Reflection in African Folktales

非洲民间故事是非洲黑人鲜活的言语体系,是非洲大众世代流传下来的宝贵文学遗产,亦是非洲传统文化的重要组成部分。它经过漫长曲折的历史发展,已成为非洲大众的生活和文化的重要元素,是研究非洲的文学、文化和思想的重要材料。本文基于美国著名人类学家和民俗学家保罗·拉丁编写的《非洲民间故事与雕刻》收录的非洲经典民间故事,揭示文学言说和存在反思这两条关键线索如何贯穿了这些故事的主题和叙事,彰显出非洲民间故事的艺术魅力和思想内涵。非洲民间故事塑造的文化英雄书写和刻画了人的存在的多面性。这些故事不仅透过创造性的言说理解生命、探索人的主体性存在,而且关注世间万事万物之间的相互联系,建构出多重对话关系。

African folktale is Africans’living verbal system,the Africans’precious heritage handed down from generation after generation,as well as an essential part of African traditional culture.Through a long and winding history of development,it has become a vital element in Africans’life and culture,and constituted the essential material for the research on African literature,culture and thought.Based on the African classic folktales in African Folktales&Sculpture edited by the eminent American anthropologist and folklorist Paul Radin,this study aims to reveal the two key threads that run through the theme and narration of these folktales,namely literary articulation and existential reflection.These two key threads manifest the artistic charm and a wealth of connotations in the African folktales.The cultural heroes characterized in the folktales exemplify the diverse facets of human’s existence.African folktales not merely interpret life and quest for human’s subjective existence by creative literary articulation,but are concerned about the nexus among all people and things in the world,thus constructing multiple dialogues.