论英语文学研究的拓展

研究外国文学从很大程度上说是一种跨文化的文学阅读活动,20世纪的文学理论告诉我们,跨文化的文学阅读不可避免地会涉及到一个阅读者在阅读过程中择取什么样的阅读视角的问题.后殖民主义理论特别指出,当一个弱势文化在阅读一个强势文化的文学时,阅读视角的问题经常会表现得更加突出.我国对英语文学研究的历史和现状明确地反映出我国外国文学界的研究立场问题,由于长期以来存在一种自动认同西方大国的倾向,我国的英语文学研究常常将英语文学与英美两国文学等同起来.而要拓展我国的英语文学研究,必须首先调整我们的阅读视角和研究立场,在摆脱殖民心态的前提下坦然面对英美以外的一切后殖民英语文学.

From English to Englishes:On Chinese Study of World Literatures in English

Studying foreign literature is,to a large extent,to engage in a cross cultural reading process which requires us to take a position in the face of what we set out to read. Contemporary postcolonialist theory,however,warns us that such a position is not necessarily easy to find when such a process involves readers from a weak culture and literary texts from a strong one.This essay points to a major problem Chinese readers have had relating to the location of a proper position from which to read international English literatures. (The problem,of course,is that Chinese readers tend to identify international English literatures with Anglo American literature alone.) Briefly describing the latest development of postcolonial English literatures in former British colonies all over the world,it argues for the need on the part of Chinese readers to readjust our reading perspective so as to apprehend the greatly broadened horizons of world literatures written in English.