奥克瑞和 《 饥饿的路 》

1. 奥克瑞和《饥饿的路》 Ben Okri and The Faminished Road

2. Nigerian novelist, short story writer, and poet, one of the leading African writers. A Brief Life and Writings

3. Style • In his work Okri has experimented with new literary forms, different styles, genres, and traditions. Okri started as a realist, with postcolonial themes. After exploring with streamof consciousness Okri published novels which mixed realism, modernism, and oral forms, especially those of Yoruba culture.

4. This style has been characterized as an example of magic realism with African flavor, although the author himself has emphasized the realistic dimensions of his work - myths and local beliefs are part of the real world, urban life-world, not that they exist next to the real world.

5. "We are the miracles that God made • To taste the bitter fruit of Time. • We are precious. • And one day our suffering • Will turn into the wonders of earth." • (from ‘An African Elegy‘哀歌)

6. 1959 • a member of the Urhobo people • born in Minna • After his birth his father moved to England to study law. Okri spent his earliest years in Peckham, south London. He attended primary school in London but returned with his family to Nigeria aged seven.

7. His childhood was shadowed by the Nigerian civil war (the Biafran War) • After finishing his high school Okri worked as a clerk at a paint store. He failed to get a place at the university and started to write articles on social and political issues. Most of them were not published, but when he wrote short stories based on these articles, they found readers in women's journals and evening papers.

8. In 1978 Okri moved to England where he studied comparative literature at Essex University. • This period was difficult in Okri's life - he wrote, slept occasionally on office floors and was forced to leave without taking a degree because lack of funds.

9. At the age of nineteen he completed his first novel, Flowers and Shadows (1980, 《鲜花与阴影》)

10. The Landscape Within （ 《内部景观》 ） ：1981，第二部长篇小说。 • Incidents at the Shrine （ 《圣殿中的意外事件》 ）： 1986，描写尼日利亚内战的长篇小说集 。 • Stars of the New Curfew （ 《新晚钟之星》 ）： 1989年，描写现代非洲生活的第二部短篇小说集 。

11. The Famished Road (《饥饿的路》)：1991年，长篇小说，获得英国最具权威的文学奖——布克奖(Booker Prize )，被公认为20世纪末非洲长篇小说的里程碑。 • 最新作品是1993年出版的诗歌集《魔幻之歌》（Songs of Enchantment）和1996年出版的小说《危险的爱情》（Dangerous Love）

12. Okri lives, works, and writes in London and he has been a visiting writer-in-residence at Trinity College, Cambridge.

13. 使命感 • Okri argued that the decline of nations begins with the decline of its writers. "Because writers represent the unconscious vigour and fighting spirit of a land. Writers are the very sign of the psychic health of a people: they are the barometer（晴雨表） of the vitality of the spirit of the nation."

14. 三部八卷五十二章，大约50万字 The title was taken from a poem by Wole Soyinka - “May you never walk / When the road waits, famished.” 【可能你永远不会走了，那时饥饿的道路在等待】 二、《饥饿之路》（The Famished Road)

15. （一）Plot Summary: • The story is set on the eve of independence of Nigeria. • The background: in an unnamed most likely Nigerian city. • Its narrator is Azaro(阿扎罗）, a “spirit-child,‘’ an abiku（阿比库）, a famished baby of ambiguous existence, who is destined to die in infancy and be reborn to the same mother over and over again.

16. Azaro's father is an idealistic labourer who wants the best for his family and the community. He suffers greatly for this, eventually becoming a boxer and later a politician. Azaro's father loves him deeply, but is often bitter at having an abiku and occasionally goes on angry violent tirades.

17. Azaro's mother works very hard selling anything she can get her hands on for the family. She cares for her family deeply and constantly gives up food and security for her family and their ideals. She is proud that Azaro is her son and goes to great lengths to protect him.

18. Madame Koto（寇朵大婶）is proprietress （老板娘）of a local bar. She has a liking for Azaro, though at times is convinced he brings bad luck. She starts out as a well-meaning woman, trying to get along with everyone else. However, as the story progresses, she becomes richer, siding with the political party of the rich, and is often accused of witchcraft（巫术）. She tries to help Azaro and his family on numerous occasions but seems to try to take Azaro's blood to remain youthful.

19. 富人党 和穷人党； • “黑虎” ；“黄美洲虎” ；白衣拳手

20. 小说的开篇： In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry“ “起先是一条河。河变成了路。路向四面八方延伸，连通了整个世界。因为曾经是河，路一直没能摆脱饥饿。” （二）小说的主题：

21. 路 • 路是资本主义制度大步进入现代非洲社会的化身。资本主义夺走了质朴的非洲原始文明，带来了现代西方文明，它贪婪地吞食鲜血和生命，使原始村庄变成现代城镇，带来了电灯、汽车、妓女，也带来了风暴、洪水和死亡。 • 但是，路不仅是罪恶的资本主义象征，它也是社会进步和发展的象征。 • “务必把门开着。我的心必须打开。我的生命必须打开。我们的路必须打开。一条打开的路永远不会饥饿。奇异的时光就要到来。”

22. 阿比库 • 不断在生死之间轮回的幽灵儿童“阿比库”，也是一个隐喻。它象征着非洲各国不断产生又一再夭折的对于民族独立和民主政治的期望。——现代民主危机的政治寓言 • “我们这个民族也是鬼魂民族，一个与鬼孩无异的民族——不断地获得再生，每次再生都伴随着血腥与背叛，而这个我们决心留住的孩子却拒绝停留，直到我们奉献出丰厚的祭品，并表现出勇于担当自身命运的坚定意愿。” （525） • 也就是说，爸爸相信，总有一天这个多灾多难的民族和国家会决定留存在人间，并逐渐强大。这也是作者对非洲未来的展望。

23. 颜色 • 黑虎：黑人民族自豪感 • 绿豹：绿，美元的颜色 • 白衣拳手：白，直接指涉侵入非洲的欧洲殖民势力。

24. （三）魔幻现实主义手法的运用——更高的现实（三）魔幻现实主义手法的运用——更高的现实 • 正如博埃默所说，奥克瑞的《饥饿的路》“引进了一种从约鲁巴神话中借来的非理性周期循环式梦幻逻辑” ，将生界与冥界、梦境与现实沟通。 • 我国学者也认为，《饥饿的路》在拉美的“魔幻现实主义艺术手法上深深打下了约鲁巴神话——非洲文化的烙印，把自己大陆的精神注入其中，在以现代意识发掘民族传统文化遗产上走出了一条新路。”（邹海仑）。魔幻现实主义是这部小说的基本的创作手法。

25. 1．这部小说选取了“阿比库”儿童阿扎罗作为叙述者，就决定了这部小说的魔幻特征。1．这部小说选取了“阿比库”儿童阿扎罗作为叙述者，就决定了这部小说的魔幻特征。

26. The complicated and ambiguous abiku child is a figure that straddles（跨在） external and internal worlds, political and individual concerns, varied ontological（本体论的） systems, and lived experiences and imagined communities. ” 复杂的和有歧义的阿比库儿童是一个跨越在内部世界和外部世界，政治的和个人的焦虑，各种各样的本体论系统以及生者的经验和想象的社团之间的形象”。

27. The widespread notion of the abiku in Nigerian culture says volumes about （speak about）the heartrending （使人极为悲痛的）deaths of countless newborns throughout the region's history. It also testifies to a belief in the permeability（可渗透） of the membrane（膜） separating the spirit world from "our" world.

28. As the abiku puts it, in his family he is surrounded by people "who are seeded in rich lands, who still believe in mysteries" (Fam 6), people who hold that "one world contains glimpses of others" (Fam 10), and people who acknowledge a personal relationship with these spirits in the course of daily life.

29. 母亲们会给这些阿比库孩子这样的一些名字，像"Malomo--Do Not Go Again"; "Banjoko--Sit Down And Stay With Us"; "Duro oro ike--Wait And See How You Will Be Petted"; and "Please Stay And Bury Me" (Maclean 51, 57).等。

30. In western Nigeria, however, a mother who suspects that her newborn is one of these child-spirits must do whatever she can to persuade the baby to stay in this difficult world, rather than have it return to the spirit-world where it will be bathed "in the ecstasy of an everlasting love" (Fam 18). Special jewelry（珠宝，首饰） and foods are prepared to tempt the baby to choose life, and circumcision（割礼） for such young boys is frequently postponed (56).

31. "I wanted to make happy the bruised face of the woman who would become my mother" (Fam 5). “那个人是我的母亲，我想让这张伤痕累累的脸高兴” 强调面向现实世界的责任

32. "As a child I could read people's minds. I could foretell their futures"--Fam 9) “作为一个孩子，我可以猜透人们心中所想的事情，预测他们的未来”

33. 2.两个世界呈示的同时性。 • 由于阿扎罗生活在两个世界之中，所以用他的话说，“自己的生命常常会延伸到其他生命中去。两者之间没有界限。有时我好像是同时拥有几个生命。一个生命汇入了其他生命，而所有这些生命有都汇入我的童年”（7） • 主人公这种越界的能力使得这部小说的魔幻现实主义手法带有了一个非常突出的特征：两个世界呈示的同时性。

34. 例1： • [ONE MOMENT I was in the room and the next moment I found myself wandering the night roads. I had no idea how I had gotten outside. I walked on the dissolving streets and among the terrestrial（地面） bushes. The air was full of riddles....I was following a beautiful woman with a blue head. She moved in cadenzas （华彩段）of golden light....She drew my spirit on to fountains of light and lilac（紫丁香） music and abiku variations....I heard someone call my name from a heavier world, but I went on walking....My name sounded heavier.

35. The woman urged me on. Her face, gentle in the light of a dreaming nebula（星云）, promised the ecstasies of a secret homeland, a world of holidays. A rough, familiar hand touched me on the shoulder. 'Where are you going, Azaro?' • It was mum. • 'That woman told me to follow her.' • 'What woman?'...There is no one there,' Mum said.

36. 'Yes there is.' • 'I'm taking you home.' •  I said nothing. She lifted me on her shoulder. I could still see the head of the woman. I could still hear the voices in passionate gardens....The woman‘s head turned to give me a last smile before she vanished altogether in a Milky Way of music....I heard the last notes of a flute....Mum took me home over the mud and wreckage of the street, over the mild（轻度） deluge（洪水）.... •  She was silent. I smelt the gutter（排水沟） and the rude plasters（石膏） of the corroded houses. (307-08)]

37. 例2： • And because Dad said nothing to me, because he made no attempts to reach me, did not even attempt a smile at me, I listened to what the three-headed spirit was saying. • ‘Your parents are treating you atrociously（残暴）,' he said. • 'Come with me. Your comrades are desperate to embrace you. There is a truly wonderful feast awaiting your homecoming....'

38. Dad got up from his chair and stood over me. His breathing manifested itself as a heavy wind in the world in which I was travelling. • 'Don't fly away,' the spirit said. 'If you fly away I don't know where you will land. There are many strange things here that devour the traveller. There are many spirit-eaters and monsters of the interspaces. Keep on the solid ground.' • Dad coughed and I tripped over a green bump（土包） on the road....(326-27)]

39. 3．《饥饿的路》所使用的魔幻现实主义手法，表面看来，采用的是一种神话思维，远离现实，但就非洲的现实来讲，它体现了一种更高的现实。

40. Everyone‘s reality is superstitious. It’s a simple fact you can‘t get away from. The scientist’s view of the world is superstitious because it is provisional（临时的，暂时性的） and a description of reality. The atheist‘s （无神论者）is superstitious, just the same way because it excludes. The person who has got a very strong religious belief is superstitious because their belief constructs the universe. Everyone's universe, everyone's perception of the world and of time is unique to them. It's a world in itself. It's a complete world.

41. An important part of my tradition is that we do not believe that the dead die....We believe that when people die, they go to another realm....And as I listened to people and read and encountered others, I found it wasn't just for me...It's a new wind that is spreading across the world....It's a new yearning and a new discovery that is slowly occupying the old tyranny of the mean description of reality. We are now becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the linear, scientific, imprisoned, mean-spirited, and unsatisfactory description of reality and human beings.

42. We want more because we sense that there is more in us. We need ritual passages to separate different points of our experience. We need ritual, initiation, transcendence of consciousness. We need these things because without them, we don't know if we are growing or if we are static.

43. It's just we went ahead and forgot. And I think we are paying a terrible price for it, and it's only the psychiatrists who benefit. The thing is that it's time that we started healing the human spirit by giving back to it its full, rich, hidden dimensions. And that is all I am trying to do in my fiction--to restore the kingdom, as I said.

44. 4．《饥饿的路》使用的魔幻现实主义手法，具有一种挑战西方文化霸权的意义。4．《饥饿的路》使用的魔幻现实主义手法，具有一种挑战西方文化霸权的意义。

45. "it's not something that is bound only to place, it's bound to a way of looking at the world...in more than three dimensions. It's the aesthetic of possibilities, of labyrinths, of riddles--we [Africans] love riddles--of paradoxes. “它不是一种仅仅和地点结合的东西。它和从多于三维空间的…看世界的方式联系紧密。它是一种可能性、迷宫、谜团（我们非洲人喜欢似非而是的谜团）的美学。 非洲的美学

46. 奥克瑞的魔幻现实主义实质上是一种文化的杂交品种，是非洲精神和欧洲传统的结合，具有跨文化的混杂性特征。这种跨文化的文学样式有效地挑战和重构了欧洲占据支配地位的欧洲中心的文学观念，形成了一种非洲新的现代美学，其意义是非常深远的。奥克瑞的魔幻现实主义实质上是一种文化的杂交品种，是非洲精神和欧洲传统的结合，具有跨文化的混杂性特征。这种跨文化的文学样式有效地挑战和重构了欧洲占据支配地位的欧洲中心的文学观念，形成了一种非洲新的现代美学，其意义是非常深远的。

47. 《饥饿的路》的出现，改变了欧洲和美洲对非洲当代长篇小说发展的总印象 ，使他们得出了非洲长篇小说正在进入与他们并驾齐驱的后现代时期的结论。 • 盖茨在《纽约时报》书评中对它所做的评语是：“对于使用任何语言的任何作家而言，这都是一项令人眼花缭乱的成就。”