喜福会书评英文

喜福会书评英文（共6篇）

喜福会书评英文篇1

The Expression of Love

——Book Review on The Joy Luck Club “The Joy Luck Club” is the story about the four central pairs of Chinese immigrant mothers and daughters born in America: Suyuan Woo and Jing-mei “June” Woo, An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan, Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong, and Ying-ying St.Clair and Lena St.Clair.The novel shows us conflicts between mothers’ hopes and daughters’ disobedience and rebellion.The conflicts and misunderstanding may result from the generation gap and cultural difference, however, in my point of view, what rigidifies their relationship is the way of expressing love.It is no doubt that the mothers and the daughters love each other deeply and mothers spare no effort to give daughters everything they could provide.From mothers’ perspective, they hope daughters a brighter further and full of promises.So they express their love by planning daughters’ blueprints and then impose their will on daughters and force them to walk their scheduled path.And for daughters, especially those live in an American, they struggle for individual freedom and wish to live their own way.Due to schemed future, they cannot accurately make a definition for their identities.Under this condition, criticism form mothers and rebellion for daughters become how they express love.In this way, love becomes a heavy burden for both of them.Mothers and daughters need to express their love in the right way.So empathy and effective communications is of great importance.Mothers should show their love according to their daughters’ interest or at least make them know why they make the choice for them.Fortunately, the novel ends up with the reunion of mothers and the daughters.It is evident that due to mothers’ telling frank stories and daughters’ patient hearing, soul communication has happened among them.They perceive the deep love form each other.So expression of love is significant and remarkable.The novel teaches us how to express our love and is worth reading.参考文献

[1] Tan, Amy.1989.The Joy Luck Club [M].New York: Ivy Books.[2] A Study of Communication Barriers Between Mothers and Daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club.

喜福会书评英文篇2

Scholars all over the world have paid much attention to Chinese American literature since 1990s.But they mainly focus on cultural themes, such as the pursuit of cultural identity, few studies on the translation of Chinese American literature have been made.Chinese American literature features in language and cultural hybridity, making it a kind of multilingualism to some extent.Thus proper translation strategies should be employed in translating Chinese American literature to maintain cultural elements and the peculiar structure of original as much as possible.Full sense translation meets this demand as it requires that translations should be precise and make sure of the maximum transmission of information in original works.

2 Full Sense Translation and Theoretical Bases

The famous Chinese translator Wu Lao first put forwards the theory of full sense translation.He recommended that translators should reproduce the content and form of the original text precisely and convey maximum information (Wu Lao, 2005:66) .And many scholars, such as Sun Zhili (2008) and Zhou Ye (2008) have explored the usage of this translation strategy.As a translation strategy, it has its linguistic theoretical bases, full sense translation tries to convey the maximum information of speech act.Full sense translation conforms to two series of rules required by speech act theory, which are language constructive rules and language regulative rules.Speech act theory is divided into two kinds of structures that are constatives and performatives.Constatives is about the exactness of language.That is to say what is said must be correct in semantics and grammar.Thus communication should follow constructive rules in order to make others understand the utterance.On the other hand, performatives concern more about interpersonal relationship, which requires that communication must comply with pragmatic rules to make the utterance appropriate (Hu Zhuanglin, 2006:188) .In other words, communication should follow regulative rules besides constructive rules.Therefore, full sense translation consists of many strategies to comply with these two rules.Constructive rules require full sense translation to absorb semantic translation as one of its strategies.

Relevance theory was proposed by Pan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in their book Relevance:Communication and Cognition in1986.Sperber and Wilson define relevance theory as“Every act of communication communicates the presumption of its own optimal relevance” (Hu Zhuanglin, 2006:196) .In terms of language and cultural differences between the source language and the target language, relevance theory must be taken as a guiding theory for translation.Besides the literal meaning of the text, the author always integrates their intentions into text, hoping readers can read the illocutionary force through context.Thus translators should take cognitive ability, cultural features and linguistic customs into consideration to make translation readers have almost the same feeling as original readers have.Therefore, translators should seek the best relevance to convey his understanding of the original after considering the cognitive differences between the author and translation readers.Thus pragmatic translation which meets regulative rules must be employed to convey the overall information of the original and make translation readers have a better understanding of the author’s intentions.

3 Full Sense Translation and Chinese American Literature

Chinese American scholar Amy Ling defines Chinese American literature as literary works describing life experience of Chinese American people and their descendants in American, written by writers who are influenced by dual ethnic identity and cultural traditions and aim to strive for equality.

Chinese American literature has had a history of more than one hundred years since the publication of When I Was a Boy in China, by Yan Phou Lee in 1887.And the development of Chinese American literature can be divided into three stages.The initial stage lasts from the late 19thcentury to the 60s of 20thcentury.The second stage ranges from the 70s of 20thcentury to the 80s of 20th century and is a golden and transitory period for Chinese American literature from.The third boom stage starts from the late 1980s and the main representatives are Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club (1989) and Gish Jen Typical American (1991) and so on.

The dual identities and special life experiences of Chinese American writers make their works full of distinctive flavors.The first peculiar writing style of Chinese American literature is the extensive usage of language hybridity technique.Many Chinese words, sentences and non-standard English expressions appear in the English original, making the text bilingual or multilingual.Besides, cultural hybridity becomes a popular writing style for Chinese American writers.They present westerners the image of China by reproducing Chinese culture or rewriting Chinese myths.The telling of Chinese stories makes the combination of Chinese culture and American culture possible.

Due to the bilingual and cross-cultural writing features of Chinese American literature, the mission of the translation is not only to converse two languages but also to reproduce the cultural features of Chinese American literature.The combination of many translation methods such as phonological translation, semantic translation and pragmatic translation makes full sense translation applicable to the translation of Chinese American literature.This thesis will take The Joy Luck Club for to illustrate the usage of full sense translation strategies in Chinese American literature.

4 Full Sense Translation in The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan has enjoyed wide popularity since its publication and is later translated into more than twenty languages including Chinese.It is comprised of four chapters, sixteen stories about conflicts and fusion between four Chinese mothers and their daughters who are born and grow up in America.The interweave of different behaviors, characteristics and values between mothers and daughters makes The Joy Luck Club an intercultural literature.This thesis will select Cheng Naishan’s and Wu Hanping’s translation, Yu Renrui’s and Tian Qing’s translations versions as examples to illustrate the translation of The Joy Luck Club from the perspective of full sense translation strategy.

4.1 Phonological translation of bilingual text

According to Hu Yong, one of the common features of Chinese American literature is employing Chinese characters in the novel (Hu Yong, 2003:148-149) .In The Joy Luck Club, the most striking feature is that lots of romanized Pinyin is inserted into the English original, making it a bilingual text.For instance, Kweilin (桂林) , mah jong (麻将) , Shwo buchulai. (说不出来。) Shemma yisz? (什么意思?) .To maintain the bilingual feature of the text and convey the maximum information of the original, zero-translation method could be the best choice.Example:

“Jrdaole”—I already know this—She said, as if to ask why I was telling her this again. (Tan, 1989:200)

(a) :“我早知道了。”她只是很平静地说, 好像很奇怪我还要再跟她说一声。 (程, 2006:179)

(b) :“Jrdaole (知道了) , ”她说, 好像是责问我为什么又把这事告诉她。 (田, 1994:162)

In Cheng’s translation bilingual color is completely dispelled.Thus receptor readers have no sense of code-switching here and the alienation experienced by the original receptors cannot be felt by receptors of the translation.The second translation version reserves the Pinyin, but the Chinese translation following the Pinyin in bracket makes the alienation of Pinyin to Chinese readers disappear.From Yu’translation, Chinese readers may know there is code-switching.However, the translation“用中文说”may cause the Chinese readers consider that“用中文说”may also appear in the original text.According to the above analysis, we can see that all these three translation versions do not comply with the demands of full sense translation, thus as for bilingual text, zero-translation could be a better strategy used to preserve this stylistic feature.Hence the above sentence can be translated as follows:

“Jrdaole, ”我已经知道了, 她说, 好像是责问我为什么又把这事告诉她。

4.2 Semantic translation of rhetoric

Semantic translation requires that translation should be close to the original text, and reserve these cultural elements and stylistic features in order to reproduce the original meaning accurately (Newmark, 1998:22) .Figures of speech play an important role in making the literary work more vivid and picturesque.Semantic translation employs many approaches, such as adding footnotes to the translation to preserve the aesthetic value of the original.

4.2.1 Pun

As explained in The New Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary“pun”refers to a joke exploiting the different possible meaning of a word or the fact that there are words which sounds alike but have different meanings.Translating puns used in The Joy Luck Club semantically could reserve these humorous effects of rhetorical devices.

Example:

In the morning she was there as well, feeding me rice porridge flavored with chicken broth she had strained herself.She said she was feeding me this because I had the chicken pox and one chicken knew how to fight another. (Tan, 1989:189)

(a) :……喂我她亲手做的鸡汤炖的大米麦片粥。他说, 喂我喝这些东西是因为我得了鸡痘病, 一只小鸡知道怎样斗另一只。 (田, 1992:180)

(b) :……给我喂喂鸡只稀饭, 鸡汁是由她亲手滤过的。他说我生了“鸡皮痘” (水痘) , 喝鸡汁正是为了让这只鸡斗败那只“鸡”。 (吴, 1992:166)

The pun of“chicken”in the example may be difficult for Chinese readers to understand considering their cultural environment and cognitive competence.As the equivalent expression of“chicken pox”in Chinese is“水痘”, which has nothing to do with chicken, a literal translation here makes no sense.Thus translators can use semantic translation strategy to reproduce the pun in Chinese and add a footnote after it to eliminate semantic obscurity.Comparing the three translations, Wu’translation conforms to the requirement of full sense translation, preserving the humorous and ironic effects of pun.

4.2.2 Simile

Simile refers to the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind using words“like”or“as”to create a more emphatic or vivid description.In The Joy Luck Club, many similes involve cultural elements.Thus it is better to adopt semantic translation strategy to make Chinese readers perceive these cultural differences and have an exotic experience.

Example:

And her friends at The Joy Luck Club said she died just like a rabbit:quickly and with unfinished business left behind. (Tan, 1989:5)

(a) :喜福会的朋友们说她死得太快了:撇下身后的事, 一撒手就去了。 (田, 1992:5)

(b) :他在喜福会的朋友们说她死得像只兔子:弃世匆匆, 丢下一堆没做完的工作。 (吴, 1992:3)

In the example, Suyuan’s friends compare her death to a rabbit, aiming to show the quickness of Suyuan’death.However, in Chinese, people seldom compare people’s death with rabbit’s.Thus semantic translation like Wu and Cheng’s may make Chinese readers have a feeling of originality.Thinking of the differences between Chinese culture and American culture becomes a natural thing for Chinese readers.Therefore, the purpose of showing the cross-cultural features of original is realized in the translation.

4.3 Pragmatic translation of Chinese culture

Pragmatic translation takes translation as across-cultural communicative activity, which emphasizes that translations should reproduce the pragmatic force (the illocutionary force in speech act theory) to achieve pragmatic equivalence between the original and translations.In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan integrates many traditional Chinese cultures and customs into the text to make English readers have a better understanding of China.However, the differences of language and culture between original readers and translation readers demand that the translation of The Joy Luck Club should pay more attention to the cultural differences from pragmatic aspect.Only in this way can pragmatic equivalence be achieved and the real intention of the author retained.

Example:

She whispered something in Chinese about“things not being balanced, ” (Amy Tan, 1989:112)

(a) 她用中文低语一番, 说是“事情不太平衡”。 (于, 1990:104)

(b) 她用汉语低声说:“什么东西失衡了。” (田, 1994:89)

As translation is a cross-cultural communicative activity, translations should not confine to the language form of original text.To achieve pragmatic equivalence, it is better to choose a language form that adjusts to the target language environment and cultural customs.According to Chinese philosophy, five elements vary in circle and have a relationship of mutual promotion and restraint.In the translation, only Cheng presented the Chinese culture to meet target readers’culturalknowledgeand achieved the author’swritingintentions.

5 Conclusion

喜福会观后感篇3

电影《喜福会》（The Joy Luck Club）以插叙的方式和细腻的手法将四对华裔母女的故事缓缓道出。四位母亲，她们生长在中国，准确的说是生长在解放前的旧中国，而她们每一位的心中都深藏着一些不幸的遭遇和或多或少悲痛的回忆。四个女儿，她们生长在美国，接受美国的教育和文化，竭力融入美国社会，她们一方面抗拒母亲的施加给她们的希冀，另一方面身上已经不可避免地带有了母亲潜移默化对她们的影响。

片头的独白说“老妇人记得多年前于上海，曾花费不菲买下一只天鹅。„„旅途中，她告诉天鹅说，在美国我会有个像我的女儿，在那儿，她无需仰仗丈夫鼻息度日；没人会看低她，因为她将说得一口流利的英文；我要她成为一只比期望中还要好上一百倍的天鹅。„„这羽毛虽不值钱，却是来自遥远的国度，一直载负着我的期盼。” 这一根鹅毛承载的是母亲沉甸甸的期盼，她不希望发生在自己身上的悲剧重演，希望女儿不像她一样是只不起眼的鸭子被人驱赶，她希望女儿成为一只高贵的天鹅自由自在。母亲希望女儿能承袭她的愿望和期盼，能过上母亲理想中的天鹅般的生活。

“她们忧心忡忡，虽然女儿们已经说得一口流利的英文，但却轻忽了她们来到美国的梦想。”女儿们在这一场文化冲突和交融中艰难地寻找属于自己的文化身份而不得。同时这一场文化冲突和交融集中表现为四对母女在相处中的矛盾、误解以及沉默。女儿们想极力摆脱中国式的文化模式，但最终还是无法超越自己的文化之根，仍落入与母亲相似的命运中去了。“我们宛如上楼梯，一步又一步，或上或下，永远重复着相同的命运。”所幸，最终母女们能坦诚地交流，女儿们理解了母亲们的苦心，母亲们也卸下了心中的担忧。这一场跨文化的交流终于有了好的结果。

这是一部改编自华裔作家小说，由华裔导演执拍，由华裔演员主演的好莱坞电影。因此整部戏处处可见跨文化交流、传播以及冲突中的真实细节。首先是语言，影片以英语为主，母女间的对话也都是英语，主人公君还要求阿姨们不许讲中文以防她们打麻将作弊。因为君（包括其他的女儿们）听不懂中文、看不懂中文，也不会说中文。语言有很多种作用，包括交际、情感表达、表达身份，还有区分文化。母亲和女儿语言上的隔阂也是造成她们多年来交流失语的一大重要因素。并非母语的英语或许难以传达母亲们的良苦用心，更难以向女儿们传递传统的文化。其次是喜福会，喜福会是君的母亲苏一手操办起来的，是每周联络起四个母亲的一场重要的聚会。母亲们在喜福会里寻找文化的认同和慰藉，在这里她们可以打麻将，可以做中国菜，可以用中文拉家常。这一种聚会的形式和意义类似于同乡会。这是外国人所没有的。每一个中国人都或多或少有一点乡土情结，他们的根深深地种在中国的土地里，种在家乡的土地里。不管走得多远，那一缕的乡思也会牵扯着出门在外的游子，引他们频频回望故乡。中国人对族群文化很看重，有很强的过去时间导向，所以不仅是海外，国内的各个省市也都有大大小小的同乡会存在。一群有相近文化背景的人能够通过同乡会寻求陪伴和慰藉，也能更好地保存下他们的传统文化。然后是高低语境，当安美阿姨端出她的拿手菜——蒸鱼时，她说“这道菜做的不好，味道有些淡，请包涵”，这是中国人表示礼貌的自谦，或者说是极其含蓄的自夸。而不懂中国文化的理查则理解为蒸鱼的确味道不好，自作主张地帮安美阿姨倒了许多酱油在菜里。当然后果是非常尴尬的了。这一场景很充分地表现了不同文化间的高低语境。在高背景文化中，一条信息的语言部分所包含的信息比较少，而大部分信息隐含在沟通接触的过程中，涉及到参与沟通人员的背景、所属社团及其基本价值观，比如亚洲国家和拉丁美洲国家。而在低背景文化中，信息表达比较直接明确，语言是沟通中大部分信息的载体，比如美国、德国和斯堪的纳维亚国家。所以处于低背景文化的理查自然不

会领会处于高背景文化中的安美阿姨所说的那些自谦的话语。

影片中幼年的女儿们跟母亲的回忆，让我想起一份研究，关于在美国的父母的认可对孩子的影响。研究者观察了孩子对父母认可的重视度，当研究者告诉孩子们测试的成绩将会告诉他们的父母时，亚裔孩子明显会更加努力希望展现更好的成绩，而美国孩子则几乎没有任何变化，反而他们会问：“So What？！”可以看出，即便这些华裔的孩子成长在美国，接受美国教育，与美国人交流，而且或许也能进入美国上流社会，但是那些文化里的烙印是磨不去，那些家庭中潜移默化的影响也是挥之不去的。而且他们与生俱来的东方面庞以及烙印在骨子里的传统价值观使他们在美国圈子里又被排斥为“他者”。

喜福会观后感篇4

二千五百年前的孔子说过，“道不行，乘桴浮于海”。这也许说明孔子获悉过来自海外的移民的信息，是移居日本的吴人(倭人)还是来自更远的移居美洲的殷人(印地安人)，就不得而知了。这天我们又接到来自海外的信息，是“道不行”的年代远渡重洋去美国的两代华裔的信息。

中国人对根的认识，可能和其它国人相比有更强烈的情感。故土难离，但离开后更思念故土，正如《喜福会》作者谭恩美的母亲临终时所言，“那的确是孩子该要了解的，作为女人需要熟悉自己的母亲，永远不要忘记我们的祖国是中国，这是母亲留给儿女们的珍贵财产。”

最令我感动的是，影片结尾，琼(吴精美)带着已故母亲的企望和代表深深祝福的鹅毛，来到中国上海，和当年在抗日战争的烽火年代失散的孪生姐妹相会，很难用言语来形容这种悲喜交集的感情，它触动了心灵最柔软的部分，一股热流在涌动。(附加说明的是，影片拍摄现场显然是我极为熟悉的有着多少悲欢离合的上海公平路码头。)小说对这一场景是这样描述的。“她们对我，总有一种无法描绘的亲切和骨肉之情。我最后看到属于我的那一部分中国血液了。呵，这就是我的家，那融化在我血液中的基因，中国的基因，经过这么多年，最后开始沸腾。”

这部影片可能是有史以来集合了最多的两岸三地的华人女影星，多头叙述了四组母女的经历，人物众多，情节繁复，年代跨度大，但有条有理，娓娓叙来，充分显示了编导的功力。两小时的长度浓缩了如此多的悲喜以及对人生好处的思索，使我们恍惚在过去和现实之间，其沧桑感只有《霸王别姬》能够媲美。

在“道不行”的年代，女性的遭遇更为悲苦，因为其作为花瓶或玩物的女性地位和对生殖机器的苛求，缠绕她的还有一份属于母亲的难舍难分的情愫。四个母亲中，一是童养媳，由于小丈夫的不谙人事而无法怀孕，屡遭婆家的白眼和唾骂，但她与命运抗争，利用婆家对传宗接代的急切情绪，移花接木，让与车夫偷情而怀孕的惶惶不安的女仆却成了正房太太，自己获得了一张去上海的车票;二是情窦初开时爱上了花心大少，怀孕后成婚，丈夫的见异思迁使她饱受两年精神折磨，在恍惚时溺死了自己的亲生儿子，以后婴儿的形象却时常浮此刻梦境中，缠绕她一辈子。此刻我们常说孩子是无辜的，这确是观念上一大进步;三是婚后丈夫过世而守寡，因被大户人家强暴后怀孕，却被视为不守妇道，被婆家和娘家先后逐出家门，被迫成为四姨太。生下的儿子又被三姨太夺走。为取得原谅，割臂肉为母亲疗病。在无望中吞食鸦片自杀;四是为在战乱时遗弃自己的孪生女儿而抱憾一生。

到海外即美国后先后出生的四个女儿又有另一番经历，其中母女间的特殊感情和彼此影响描述的极为细腻。一是精明能干的母亲和丝毫不亚于她的女儿，在奕棋及感情婚姻上互相角力，在第一次顺从母亲选取的婚姻失败后，嫁给了老外，最终得到了母亲的默许;二是女儿爱上公司老板，而他却是个斤斤计较的丈夫，除用计算机费用均摊，显然还处处占着妻子的便宜。母亲不要她重蹈覆辙，即使是爱过的男人，如果没有尊重、温柔和爱，就就应离开他;三是也嫁给大户人家，为避免夫家对东方人的讥讽，努力做一个称职的妻子而习惯于自甘卑微，结果失去了丈夫的尊重和爱。在母亲的鼓励下，她最后找到了自我，婚姻重获新生;四是母亲追求什么都做的最好，对女儿的期望也同样高。在母亲过世后，她才理解自责的心理一向在折磨着母亲。母亲把对两位姐姐的期望寄托在她的身上，把三倍的爱给了她。最后她带着母亲深深的祝福，到中国和两位“长着妈妈一样的脸”的姐姐相聚，她圆了母亲的心愿。

喜福会英语读后感篇5

The first time I saw the title of the film, the Joy Luck Club, I thought that it would be a film filed with joy, luck and happiness. However, out of my expectation, in the film, I saw many unpleasant thingsconflicts, hardship, disappointment, sorrow, hurt, torture etc. Of course there were some moving parts, and fortunately, it was a happy ending. Anyway, I enjoyed it very much. It made me have a penetrating thinking.

The Joy Luck Club tells about the conflicts between Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters and their struggling to understand each other. The film shows us these topics: the misunderstanding of love between the mothers and the daughters, the clash between the generations and cultures, and the struggle for the women to fight for equity. Now I am going to show you my understanding of them, emphasizing on the first topic.

In many cases, we and those we love are easy to hurt each other because of the misunderstanding of love, the conflicts in generations and culture background, or unconsciousness.

Take Jingmei and her mother Suyuan as an example. When Suyuan demands the little Jingmei to play piano, Jingmei shouts to her mother, You can’t make me! Even Jingmei cried that she wish she isn’t Suyuan’s daughter and Suyuan isn’t her mother, and that she wishes she were the dead like the babies Suyuan abandoned in China. The sad expression on Suyuan’s face indicates that she is hurt deeply by her daughter’s innocent words.

This reminds me of my similar experience. Once I hurt my mother as Jingmei did. I didn’t mean to hurt her, but those wounding words just slip out of my mouth unconsciously. Often, we hate that why our parents don’t know my feelings, why they like to make us be something and totally unaware that what their children are. While the parents don’t know why all their sacrifices to the children can’t be paid off, even incite hatred. Actually, this is the generation gap that causes the misunderstanding. We don’t know the hardship our parents underwent before. They can’t understand what we are thinking. So misunderstandings appear.

Maybe as a child, Jingmei cannot comprehend what her remarks mean to Suyuan, and just want to show her grudge. But another main reason is the different backgrounds of Suyuan and Jingmei bare. Chinese parents always like to put all their hopes on the next generation for they are the generation full with hardship and pain. All they do just want the children to be better, but they ignore that whether their children can accept or not, not along a child born in America, influenced by the American’s individual freedom and knowing little about Chinese culture. The generation gap and culture conflict cause the misunderstanding of the mother and the daughter.

The other example is Waverly and her mother Lindo. Waverly tries her best to please Lindo in everything. Whether her mother approves or not becomes the master of all her choice. Even Waverly marries a Chinese man because Lindo likes Chinese, while she doesn’t love. Waverly doesn’t understand why Lindo disapprove or criticize whatever she has done. On the other side, Lindo thinks that her daughter is ashamed of her, which is her continual internal injury after Waverly’s winning that chess contest, when Waverly shouted to Lindo if Lindo wanted to show off, won the chest by herself. Every time, Lindo’s disagreement with or indifference to Waverly directly results from the thought that Waverly feels it shameful to be her daughter. Both of them deeply love each other, but in the meantime, they hostile and hurt one another. This is the way them get along with each other. Fortunately, they clear up their misunderstandings and discover themselves by communicating.

I am deeply moved by this scene:

Waverly Jong says to Lindo, sobbing,, You don“t know, you don”t know the power you have over me. One word from you, one look, and I“m four years old again, crying myself to sleep, because nothing I do can ever, ever please you. And after a short period of silence, Lindo smiles to Waverly with tears in her eyes, Now, you make me happy. Then they laugh heartily, teary-eyed with happiness.

Seeing the old Lindo bursts out laughing, like a child, and Waverly laughs joyfully, I sincerely feel delighted for them. Love needs communicating, understanding, and tolerance, which is what I learn from them.

Along with above mentioned, the struggle for the women to fight for equity is also brought to the surface. For instance, Ying-ying encourages her daughter Lena to escape an unhappy marriage, not repeating the same mistakes she made in her first marriage. And An-mei tells her daughter Rose to learn to shout at the unfair fate, and express her own will because Rose has lost herself in her marriage. These two cases reveal that the women begin to release themselves from the restrains of being oppressed by the men and the old-fashioned thoughts as well as some Chinese traditional characters. Eventually, the women find their true value and win their own happiness.

对小说《喜福会》主题的三重解读篇6

在谭恩美的笔下, 海外华裔第一代女性、第二代女性的生活被记录、被放大。那些隐藏在繁琐生活之下的找寻主题无形中就被凸现出来。作为海外华裔女性, 她们在不断找寻:在新的文化环境中找寻双重文化身份的他者认同和自我认同, 找寻失落已久的话语权, 找寻根源、找寻灵魂可以回归安息的地方。找寻成为了贯穿于《喜福会》这部小说始终的主题, 并被作者以细致入微的女性独特视角展现出来, 赋予了浓厚的人文关怀气息。而海外华裔女性找寻的最终, 则从一个侧面体现了中国传统哲学中修身的最终境界:所有的找寻都为了寻求内心的平和与喜悦, 所有的找寻为了寻求实实在在的自我满足感与归属感, 所有的找寻为了寻求东西文化最终的统一与妥协。这也正印证了《喜福会》这部小说的名称所在:喜悦和幸福皆是因为所有找寻的结果都落到了实处, 海外华裔女性在新的文化环境中找寻到了自己应有的位置。

从三个层面来对《喜福会》中的找寻进行解读, 可以看到海外华裔女性所找寻的是认同、话语权、根源。作者强调找寻之于海外华裔女性尤其是第一代漂洋过海女性的意义是非常重大的。第一代海外华裔女性通过找寻来为自己重新定位, 通过找寻来实现在旧文化环境中所无法实现的理想, 同时也通过对于找寻的传递和延续使得第二代华裔女性在本质上与其产生共鸣。

从找寻的第一层面:认同来看, 找寻认同成为小说的一个基调:母亲找寻女儿的认同、女儿寻求母亲的认同、华裔女性寻求在新环境中的他者认同、华裔女性寻求在新环境中的自我认同。所有的认同都直接指向了华裔女性在海外所处的困境, 同时也从侧面展现了东西文化之间的冲突、母辈与子辈之间的冲突。认同最终是为了在双重文化背景中自我“多文化人”身份的重新确认, 同时也是为了使得文化间冲突减缓, 达成妥协, 形成统一。

困境不管对于第一代海外华裔女性还是第二代海外华裔女性, 都已成为了一种象征, 它象征着东西方女性的差异, 同时它也象征着东西方文化的差异。

较之第二代海外华裔女性, 谭恩美似乎更注重于展现第一代海外华裔女性所处的困境:处于旧文化环境中不堪回首的过往, 现实中由于文化冲突所造成的意识形态上的代沟与摩擦, 这些使得他们同时陷入失语沉默的困境:无法言表, 无可奈何。他们一方面无法表达出自己所处的困境, 另一方面由于受旧文化传统的影响, 他们也不愿在子辈面前表达出他们所处的困境。就如同小说中林多与女儿薇弗丽长时间的对峙、母亲素云与女儿金美之间所产生的隔阂。所有的冲突和距离来自于第一代海外华裔女性所身处的困境, 来自于他们所处于无法言表又无可奈何的沉默失语之地。

而第二代海外华裔女性同样面临着困境, 他们情不自禁继承着由母亲所传承下来的所谓东方女性的传统, 继承着旧文化所带给他们来自于血脉上的传承。他们无法协调自己所生长环境与自己所传承血脉上文化之间的冲突, 无法协调东方女性与西方女性之间的差异。文化的差异使得他们陷入了相对矛盾的境地:继承的不可回避与现实的冲突矛盾。

困境最终源自于冲突:文化间的冲突、母女间的冲突。而冲突源起于海外华裔女性所承担的特殊的双重文化身份。而与第二代海外所生长起来的华裔女性所不同的是, 第一代漂洋过海的华裔女性更明显处于东西文化的夹缝中, 处于东西文化碰撞冲突的最前线。他们有着文化冲突上的尴尬身份:一方面他们无法彻底摆脱旧文化所带给自己的深刻烙印, 另一方面他们无法妥善应对来自新文化所带来的冲击。冲突矛盾成为了母女间乃至于文化间的表现主题。在小说中, 母亲素云对于女儿吴金美的传统中国式的管教, “在这个屋子里只能容得下服从的女儿。”女儿薇弗丽对母亲林多长时间的误解, 都无疑印证了东西文化间在意识形态上不同所带来的不可调和的冲突矛盾。

站在找寻的第二层面上来看, 找寻认同落到实处则是对在父系社会中长期失落的话语权的找寻。通过对于失落的话语权的找寻, 来达到对自我“多文化人”双重文化身份的重新确认。小说体现出了第一代海外华裔女性对话语权的重新夺回, 话语权在新文化环境下的重新回归。第一代海外华裔女性身上具备新时代女性的抗争精神, 具备了在中国时代更迭时期女性所具有的特质:他们开始敢于说话, 敢于为自己说话, 他们努力发出自己的声音, 来证明自己长期被父系社会所忽视所践踏的存在, 来颠覆自己长期为男人所忽视所不屑一顾的卑微位置。每一个关于母亲的故事都带着对于父权的强烈批判、带着对于母亲的强烈眷恋和赞颂、带着对于女性觉醒和抗争的赞扬。然而与此同时, 他们身上也带着东方女性的传统, 并且通过血脉传递给了自己的女儿。他们在传递话语权的同时, 同样也将东西方女性的差异与冲突传递给了自己的女儿。

而在这种传递中, 第二代海外华裔女性则通过话语权在男女关系的平衡方面上做出不懈的努力。他们努力在新文化环境中自由表达自我:向母亲表达自我、向朋友表达自我、向爱人表达自我、向社会表达自我。而与母辈相比较, 他们则拥有了更多在选择配偶上的自由。然而也正如上文所说的, 第二代海外华裔女性无法调和东西文化上的差异使得他们陷入矛盾冲突的困境。第一代海外华裔女性则在此时成为了第二代海外华裔女性突破并走出困境的领路人。母女冲突在这一层面上得到了解决, 母女关系得到很大程度的调和。母亲对于自身“多文化人”身份的确认的经验的传递上, 很好地解决了女儿在这方面上的困窘与迷茫。小说中母亲安梅在女儿露丝在婚姻上如同她母亲一般日益沦落到卑微的地位, 无法像婚前有自己的主见, 婚姻即将破裂的时候成为了女儿走出迷茫, 走出困境的领路人。她告诉了女儿关于自己母亲的故事, 唤醒了女儿露丝因为婚姻而失去的自我。

在小说中, 不可忽视的是母亲对于女儿所能产生的至关重要的影响作用, 就像女儿薇弗丽与母亲争吵时所说的, “你不知道, 你不知道你对我的影响有多大。你的一句话, 一个眼神, 就会让我再次变成那个四岁的孩子, 每天哭着睡着, 因为我无论做什么也不能使你满意。”正是由于这样至关重要的影响力, 使得母亲们有了成为女儿们走出困境的领路人的可能, 使得母亲们在文化身份重新确认意义上升华为沟通的桥梁, 母亲们自身的经验成为了女儿们走出困境所不可或缺、无法替代的“法宝”。正如母亲映映所说的那样:“我只是生下了她, 而我并未赋予她灵魂……此刻我要释放她的灵魂。”灵魂成为了海外华裔女性消弭东西方女性差异的象征, 成为了海外华裔女性对于新文化环境的认同与融入的象征, 更是成为了海外华裔女性对自身多文化身份确认的象征。

作为找寻的第三层面:对于自身根源的找寻, 则在小说中以代母寻女的形式呈现在观众面前。女儿金美承担起了母亲素云长期以来寻找被自己所遗弃的双胞胎女儿的使命。她的代母寻女, 贯穿在了小说的始终, 这也使得找寻成为了小说的基调, 同时也让找寻这一主题在故事情节的进行中不断地被凸现出来, 呈现在读者面前。

在小说中, 由母女失散所引发出的找寻, 从更深的层面来看, 是寻根情结在无形中的一种展现。第一代海外华裔女性无一例外都有着失母或失子的过往。母辈在逃离旧文化环境中所失去的、所丢失的, 最终在子辈身上得到或多或少的弥补。而作为第二代海外华裔女性金美所承担起的代母寻女, 一方面体现出了他们自觉或不自觉地承担起了弥补母亲由于失去而产生的遗憾和希望, 另一方面也反映出了他们自身对于寻根情结复杂的心态:希望去看到又不希望去看到。旧文化环境对于第二代海外华裔女性而言, 毕竟是陌生的, 从未接触过的。他们所寻找的, 是被遗弃的孩子, 更是需要他们直面的文化继承上无法割断的血脉相传。小说的最后, 同母异父、长大成人的女儿们的重逢, 象征着东西文化最终达成了妥协统一, 统一于女性, 统一于母性。全文所反映的东西文化冲突, 最终消弭在了“同一个母亲”的主题之下, 消弭在了在重逢的女儿们相互凝视的微笑之中。

参考文献

[1]谭恩美.《喜福会》[M].上海译文出版社.2006年5月.

[2]邱畅.论《喜福会》中的文化冲突和文化融合[J].辽宁教育行政学院学报.2007年09期.

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