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本文旨在探析毛姆在其具有代表性的作品《人生的枷锁》和《在中国屏风上》中所表现出的傲慢与偏见以及这种傲慢与偏见产生的原因。毛姆作为二十世纪英国文坛一位重要的作家,他对东方文化有着特殊的情感,创作了大量以东方为背景的作品。其中,《人生的枷锁》和《在中国屏风上》,他不但给我们呈现出了一系列中国形象,而且这一系列中国形象也折射出了他作为西方作家内心的傲慢与偏见。毛姆对待中国,尤其是对待中国人的那种傲慢与偏见具有浓厚的东方主义色彩,是诸多因素作用下的产物。首先,在西方社会文化语境中,中国人的相貌一直悖离西方的审美观;其次,英国的工业革命使英国一跃成为列强之首,社会上空弥漫着骄傲自大、目空一切的情绪,这就使英国的作家们在进行“他者”形象的建构时难以给出客观公正的评价;还有就是毛姆自身的性格因素。
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the arrogance and prejudice Maugham displays in his representative works The Shackles of Life and The Screen in China and the reasons for such arrogance and prejudice. Maugham, an important writer in the 20th century British literary world, has a special emotion in oriental culture and has created a large number of oriental-oriented works. Among them, “the shackles of life” and “on the screen in China,” he not only presented us with a series of images of China, but this series of images of China also reflected his arrogance and prejudice as the heart of western writers. Maugham’s treatment of China, especially Chinese people’s arrogance and prejudice has a strong Orientalism, is the product of many factors. First of all, in the social and cultural contexts of the West, the appearance of the Chinese people has always been contrary to western aesthetic standards. Secondly, the industrial revolution in Britain led Britain to become the head of the power and the society filled with arrogance and empty-headed mood. It is difficult for the British writers to give an objective and fair assessment of the image of the “Other’s.” There is also Maugham’s own personality factor.