战争书写与桃花源想象——罗伯特·白英与沈从文小说的比较分析
作者简介:汪云霞,上海交通大学人文学院教授(上海 200240);戴思钰,上海交通大学人文学院博士研究生(上海 200240)。
基金项目:
本文为上海市哲学社会科学规划课题“‘左联’诗歌文献的抢救性整理与研究”(2025BWY002)的阶段性成果
摘要: 罗伯特·白英与沈从文之间有着深厚的跨文化交流关系。白英对沈从文小说的集中译介,助推其在世界范围内传播;而经由阅读与翻译沈从文,白英的中国题材小说创作受到一定的影响。白英的战争观与生命观同沈从文高度契合,两人“活着即神圣”与“硬朗结实的活下去”的生命态度具有内在一致性。白英同沈从文一样,尤为注重挖掘战争中日常生活的诗性色彩,表现普通士兵的心理创伤与孤独体验。白英与沈从文小说中所创造的空间意象“新加坡河/云寺堂”与“白河/茶峒”可谓异曲同工,体现出他们对道家文化的推崇及其对桃花源世界的审美建构。另外,二者所塑造的祖孙关系、爱情关系乃至开放式的结局模式也存在诸多相似。白英与沈从文之间的种种关联,彰显了中外文学与文化之间的深层交流与互动,为世界文学与中国文学的比较研究提供了启示意义。
War Writing and Peach Blossom Spring Imagination——A Comparative Analysis of Robert Payne's and Shen Congwen's Novels
Abstract: Robert Payne and Shen Congwen shared a profound cross-cultural relationship.Payne's concentrated translation and introduction of Shen's fiction significantly facilitated its global dissemination;Moreover,through his reading and translation of Shen,Payne's Chinese-themed fiction was influenced to a certain extent.Payne's views on war and life were highly compatible with Shen's,as both demonstrated an intrinsic consistency in their attitudes toward life,encapsulated in their respective notions of “Everything that lives is holy” and “To live on with toughness and resilience.” Like Shen,Payne placed particular emphasis on exploring the poetic dimensions of everyday life during wartime,portraying the psychological trauma and solitary experiences of ordinary soldiers.The spatial imagery created in their novels—such as “Singapore River / Cloud Temple Hall” in Payne's works and “White River / Chadong” in Shen's—can be regarded as comparable achievements,reflecting their reverence for Daoist culture and their aesthetic construction of a Peach Blossom Spring world.Moreover,their depictions of grandparent-grandchild relationships,romantic relationships,and even open-ended narrative structures exhibit numerous similarities.The manifold connections between Payne and Shen illuminate the deep-level exchanges and interactions between Chinese and foreign literature and culture,offering significant insights for the study of world literature and the global dimensions of Chinese literature.