门罗与中国

2014-01-16 18:26谢文雄
文化交流 2014年1期
关键词:门罗诺贝尔文学奖短篇小说

谢文雄

2013年12月10日,在瑞典举行的诺贝尔文学奖颁奖典礼上,82岁的门罗因年事已高及身体健康原因,没能从加拿大飞往瑞典,而是让女儿简妮代表她参加了在斯德哥尔摩市政厅举行的颁奖典礼。不过,在12月7日傍晚,门罗就以视频形式完成了题为《爱丽斯 ·门罗:在她自己的文字里》的诺贝尔文学奖主旨演讲。门罗在视频演讲中回顾了自己的文学创作经历,其中有一段对话在她自己的“门罗书店”完成。她谈到自己最美好的时光是在书店度过的。

诺奖评委会称她为“当代短篇小说大师”。瑞典文学院评价门罗的作品以情节引人、描写细腻见长,带有心理现实主义特色,门罗有“当代契诃夫”的美誉。

门罗对加拿大媒体说她希望自己的获奖“能让人们把短篇小说视为一门重要的艺术,而非一个写着玩的东西”。

莫言之后的“门罗热”

一时间,媒体、图书市场掀起了“门罗热”。短短几天,门罗作品在百度搜索、豆瓣搜索等网上迅速飙升,京东网、当当网等电商纷纷推出预售服务。亚马逊网的预售更是创造出一小时预订1000册的好成绩。定价为28元的《逃离》在孔夫子旧书网上曾飙升到120元一本。

全国各大书店每天都有热情的读者来电或上门询问有无门罗作品,每天都有热情的读者因买不到书而失望离去。诺贝尔文学奖强有力的文化推送,使中国广大读者对门罗所创作的文学作品产生了极大的阅读渴望。

门罗在中国内地最早出版的一部短篇小说集《逃离》,2009年由北京十月文艺出版社出版。在中国的“门罗热”中已火速加印40万册。译林出版社在三四年前己组织专家和译者译成好几本门罗的小说集,却迟迟未出版。如今该社迅即将门罗《太多的欢乐》《快乐影子舞》《恨、友谊、追求、爱、婚姻》《少女和女人们的生活》《公开的秘密》《一个善良女子的爱》《爱的进程》7部重要作品高调上市。这些著作几乎囊括了门罗各个时期最具代表性的短篇小说作品。

毫无疑问,莫言的获奖在带动公众关注中国文学、中国作家的同时,也使人们愈加关注诺贝尔奖这一全球文学最高奖项。

STARDOM名家风采

2013年诺贝尔文学奖得主、82岁加拿大女作家爱丽丝·门罗

82-year-old Canadian Alice Munro won Nobel Prize in Literature 2013.

走进门罗的艺术世界

爱丽丝 ·门罗,1931年生于加拿大安大略省温格姆镇,少女时代即开始写小说。

她1951年离开西安大略大学,后随夫来到不列颠哥伦比亚省,先在温哥华居住,后又在省会维多利亚开了一家“门罗书店”。1972年门罗回到安大略省,与第二任丈夫一起生活。门罗是她第一任丈夫的姓,但仍为她发表作品时沿用。

故事背景大多是乡间小镇及其邻里,逐渐形成以城郊小镇平凡女子的寻常生活为题材的写作风格。故事人物和现实中人并无二致,亦经历出生与死亡、结婚与离异。1968年门罗37岁,她发表第一部短篇小说集《快乐影子舞》(Dance of theHappy Shades),一炮打红,并得了她的第一个加拿大总督文学奖。此时,她已是三个女孩的母亲。

此后,《我青年时期的朋友》《你以为你是谁?》《爱的进程》《公开的秘密》《一个善良女子的爱》《石城远望》等十多部作品纷纷将总督奖、吉勒奖、英联邦作家奖、莱南文学奖、欧 ·亨利奖以及全美书评人协会奖等收入囊中。作品被翻译成13种文字传遍全球,受到读者与媒体的高度评价,门

罗被誉为“当代最伟大的短篇小说家”。2009年5月,由于作品一贯的极高水准和在全球的巨大影响,门罗毫无争议地荣获第3届布克国际文学奖。

截至2013年10月,门罗创作出版了11部短篇小说集和l部类似故事集的长篇小说。

1983年,中年时期的门罗(左)与著名作家玛丽琳·罗宾逊在92Y诗学中心。

Munro and Marilynne Robinson at 92Y Poetry Center in 1983

作为代表作,影响巨大的《逃离》2004年出版,立刻引起如潮好评,迅速夺得当年加拿大吉勒文学奖。评委们对此书的赞语是:“故事令人难忘,语言精确而有独到之处,朴实而优美,读后令人回味无穷。”《逃离》并入选《纽约时报》年度图书。

中国著名翻译家李文俊将《逃离》翻译成中文。他在《译后记》中写道:“我们在多读了一些门罗的短篇小说之后,会感觉到,她的作品除故事吸引人、人物形象鲜明,也常有‘含泪的笑这类已往大师笔下的重要因素之外,还另有一些新的素质。”“作为一位女作家,她对女性观察的细致与深刻也是值得称道的。门罗的另一特点是,随着年龄的增长,她的作品倒似乎越来越醇厚有味了。 ”

“女性对于那些奇特的、边缘化的创作有着天生的敏感性。在一个小镇里可以静下心来安安稳稳地写作。在小镇里,作为女人你可以从你的朋友那里知道很多故事。 ”门罗如是说。几个平凡的小镇女子,一旦进入门罗的作品,便成了小说的主人公,就会产生震撼心灵的艺术魅力。

门罗擅长写短篇小说,特别是篇幅稍长、几乎接近中篇的作品。每一篇短篇,让别的作家来写,也许能敷陈成几十万字的长篇小说。她自己也说:“我想让读者感受到的惊人之处,不是‘发生了什么 ,而是发生的方式。稍长的短篇小说对我最为合适。”

门罗笔触细腻地刻画出生活平淡真实的面貌,而涉及的却都是和生老病死相关的严肃主题。她给人带来很真挚深沉的情感。中国作家陈丹燕这样评价门罗:“我爱她真实和沉重,

1981年门罗随加拿大作家代表团来华访问,在北京、西安、广州等地采风。

Munro visited Beijing, Xian and Guangzhou with a delegation of Canadian authors in 1981.

沉重的那种真挚的温柔。真的写得太好! ”美国犹太作家辛西娅·奥齐克甚至将门罗称为“当代契诃夫”,而很多欧美媒体在评论中,都毫不吝啬地给了她“当代最伟大小说家”的称号。

门罗的中国之行

在1981年6月至7月,应中国作家协会邀请,门罗随加拿大作家代表团一行7人来华访问。他们和时任中国作协副主席的丁玲见面,参观北京、西安、广州等地,并和当地作家交流。回国后,他们合写了一本名为《七人帮中国游记》的书,一时洛阳纸贵,轰动加、美地区。

门罗向中国作家介绍自己笔下的女性,并和陪伴她的中国女孩闲聊裙子;与中国的妇女热烈地交谈。“还有王先生,他特別棒。我常常念起他,想知道他现在在干什么。他有幽默感,

会讽刺,能分好几层分析事儿。”“他们都很和善,令人愉快。 ”门罗还在中国度过了“生命中最精彩的生日”。

她此次中国之行写了一篇题为《透过玉帘》的散文,收录在《七人帮中国游记》一书中。

在这篇散文中,门罗写道:“50岁生日是有些让人害怕的事情。50岁,在我听上去总有点灰不溜秋、走向衰老。在广州,为我举办了一个盛宴。到香港,我的生日还在继续。我觉得,我们入加拿大国境了,还在过我的生日。生日持续了好几天。如此过50岁,实在美妙。这是我生命中最精彩的生日。 ”

对中国的人流,门罗非常感叹,并用夸张的笔法形容:“在中国,没有‘单独一词。嗯,街上到处是人,白天黑夜。人流进出房子,人流淌满街道。我从来没有体验过那种人潮汹涌,尤其是在田里,那么多人在干活。 ”但回到加拿大,门罗看到街道空荡荡的,反而有些不适应,感觉很奇怪。

门罗对中国并不陌生,三十多年前她就访问了中国。然而对中国读者来说,门罗的名字确实有些陌生。谁能想到一位成名数十年,获奖无数次,如今已白发苍苍的文学名家,在东方古国居然经历这种从乏人知晓到一夜爆红的命运。这一文化现象足以说明,面对诺贝尔文学奖强有力的推送,中国读者终将感知世界精英文学的意义与魅力。□

Nobel Laureate Munro and China

By Xie Wenxiong

Alice Munro, a Ca-nadian author writing in English, was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature for her work as “Master of the modern short story.”

Munro was surprised

出版,立刻引来如潮好评,并获大奖。它是中国内地最早出版的门罗小说集。

Runaway, a collection of short sto-ries by Munro, was published in 2004. Its Chinese version was published in China in 2009, the first book by Munro in China.

to learn that she was thus honored. She had known she was on the list but she did not expect to get chosen. She commented that her winning the top literary honor would hopefully help people regard

the short story as a significant art, not something you write for fun.

When the news reached China, people searched information on the Canadian master on leading Chinese search engines and some online booksellers offered a booking service for people to buy her books in advance. At Confucius, one of Chinas online heavyweight

诺贝尔文学奖奖章的背面:一个年轻人坐在一棵桂树下,入迷地听着、记录着缪斯女神的歌。

The Nobel Prize Medal for Literature of the Swedish Academy represents a young man sitting under a laurel tree who, enchanted, listens to and writes down the song of the Muse.

websites for second-hand books transactions, the Chinese version of Runaway was priced 120 yuan though the books retail price was 28 yuan. After learning that Munro won the prize, many readers visited bookstores across China to see whether Munros books were avail-able. Many were disappointed.

Runaway was Munros first Chinese collection of short stories

published in 2009 by Beijing October Literature and Art Press. The press has fast reprinted 400,000 extra copies in response to the Munro craze raging in China. Yilin Press had some of Munros representative short stories translated three years back, but failed to publish them for some reason. After learning the news, Yilin de-cided to put together a collection containing all the representative stories. Mo Yan, the Nobel laureate last year, made a big stir among Chinese readers. This year, Munro has caused another big sensation in China.

Some Chinese readers had known her before her overnight fame in 2013. In June and July 1981, Munro visited China with six other Canadian writers at the invitation of China Writers Association. They met with Ding Ling, a vice chair of the association, and visited Beijing, Xian and Guangzhou. After their visit, the seven wrote separate essays on their China tour and these essays were later put together as a collection and pub-lished. It has a Chinese version.

During her 1981 China tour, Munro talked with Chinese writers about women in her fiction. She chat-ted with a Chinese girl about skirts. She engaged herself in lively discussions with Chinese women. She met with Mr. Wang, a man of humor, satire and analysis. She attended a party in celebration of her 50th birthday in Guangzhou and her birthday was also celebrated in Hong Kong. She observed that it was her best birthday so far.

Munro was so deeply impressed with ever-flowing

crowds in Chinese streets that she said the word

“lonely” did not apply to China. There were people in streets day and night. People flew into houses and streets were al-ways full of people. She had never seen such human flows. Back to

Canada, she felt a little bit odd about the empty streets.

Munro had been highly appreciated among Chinese authors be-fore she won the Nobel Prize. However, general readers in China did not know her very well. Before her Nobel Prize, Alice Munro had not been a popular writer in China though she had made her fame in the west for decades and had grabbed quite a few liter-ary awards. Nobel Prize in Literature has been changing the way Chinese readers understand the world. It is expected that Chinese readers will eventually know the significance and power of the elite literature of the world through writers like Alice Munro.

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