用神话书写被遮蔽的历史记忆——《棕榈酒酒徒》和《我在鬼林中的生活》主题新论

外国文学研究 ›› 2020, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (2): 98-109.

用神话书写被遮蔽的历史记忆——《棕榈酒酒徒》和《我在鬼林中的生活》主题新论

张燕

出版日期:2020-04-25 发布日期:2021-02-28
作者简介:张燕,华侨大学外国语学院副教授,主要研究美国非裔小说和非洲英语小说。
基金资助:
国家社科基金一般项目“文化与历史语境下的尼日利亚英语小说研究”（13BWW067）

Representing the Veiled Historical Memory in Mythological Writing: The Themes of The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts Reconsidered

Zhang Yan

Online:2020-04-25 Published:2021-02-28
About author:Zhang Yan is an associate professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Huaqiao University (Quanzhou, 362021, China). Her research is primarily focused on Afro-American fiction and African English fiction. Email: zhangyan7206@hqu.edu.cn
Supported by:
“A Study of Nigerian English Fiction in the Context of Culture and History” (13BWW067) supported by National Social Science Fund of China

摘要/Abstract

内容摘要： 学界在分析图图奥拉长篇代表作《棕榈酒酒徒》和《我在鬼林中的生活》中的民间神话元素时,已意识到其神话书写不乏对殖民主义的批判。如果从历史、民俗、性别等角度切入文本可以发现,图氏是一位颇具历史意识并关注非洲女性命运的作家,他在这两部小说中不仅真实再现了前殖民时期尼日利亚社会对奴隶贸易的恐惧心理,而且也较客观地反映了历史上尼日利亚女性曾享有较高社会地位的生活状况。图氏虽未在这两部作品中进行有意识和系统的历史建构,但他的神话书写对尼日利亚乃至非洲民族主义作家的历史建构是一种有意义的偏离,因为它不仅让那些民族主义作家有意遮蔽的创伤历史记忆浮出水面,同时也批判了在他们的历史建构中明显的男权主义倾向。

关键词: 图图奥拉, 《棕榈酒酒徒》, 《我在鬼林中的生活》, 奴隶贸易, 两性关系

Abstract: In their studies of A. Tutuola's masterpieces The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, scholars have noticed that mythological writing is full of the writer's criticism of colonialism. With a close reading of the two novels from other perspectives such as history, folklore, and gender studies, this article further argues that Tutuola, was a writer with acute historical consciousness and a keen concern about the fate of African women. In these two novels, he offered both a realistic representation of the fear within the precolonial Nigerian society toward the slave trade and an objective depiction of the living conditions of the Nigerian women who used to enjoy a relatively high social status in early years. Although Tutuola did not attempt at a conscious and systematic of history construction, his mythological writing is a significant deviation from the construction of history by Nigerian and even by African nationalist writers, for it not only resurfaces the historical traumatic memory that has been deliberately veiled by them, but also repudiates the explicit patriarchal inclination in their construction of history.

Key words: Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, slave trade, sexual relations

张燕. 用神话书写被遮蔽的历史记忆——《棕榈酒酒徒》和《我在鬼林中的生活》主题新论[J]. 外国文学研究, 2020, 42(2): 98-109.

Zhang Yan. Representing the Veiled Historical Memory in Mythological Writing: The Themes of The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts Reconsidered[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2020, 42(2): 98-109.

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