文化壁垒间的苦涩人生——试论赫西的长篇小说《召唤》

A Painful Life to Cross Different Cultures: A Review on the Call by John Hersey

评析了美国著名作家约翰·赫西的长篇小说《召唤》 (1985 )所表现的文化交流的主题。小说描写一个美国传教士在中国长达 6 0余年的生活经历和思想历程 ,反映了中美文化交流过程中 ,各种文化因素纷至沓来 ,互相牵制 ,形成合力 ,导致交流中的冲突和融汇的情况。虽然小说对异质文化间最终达成理解的前景表示悲观 ,但其中具有历史跨度的文献实录和对主人公内心世界的生动描写 ,对我们加强了解不同文化进行交往和沟通的艰巨性和可能性 。

This paper discusses The Call (1985) by John Hersey, a famous novel describing the cultural exchange between two different nations, China and America. The protagonist is an American missionary who has spent more than 60 years in China. His life and career are affected strongly by a complex and multifold cultural factors that mix with the historic course of the cross-communication of the West and the East. John Hersey s novel, reciting a mount of profiles of the past era and giving many vivid details of the protagonist s inner enlightenment, makes a useful contribution to the wider understanding of the difficulties and possibilities of cultural exchange between different nations, though the author seems to hold still a pessimistic point of view on it.