遗迹于乡园 留名于文史

鲍海飞2013-10-11

今年诺贝尔文学家奖授予了加拿大的女作家爱丽丝-门罗Alice Munro。从李泳老师那里得知：这位Alice是近百年来的第13个女性获奖者（这个数字确实是非常非常的小），Alice是“当代短篇小说大家（a master of contemporary short story）。”

下面是一些评论人的评语（从李泳老师那里得来）：the precision of her language; the perfection of detail; the surprise and logic ofher storytelling; the graceful, seamless shifts of moods; the intimacy with every shade of human behavior.

我将其大致翻译如下：“语言准确，细节完美，故事情节即合理又惊人，字词优美，感情细腻，贴近人性。“ 这到很像我们的作文评语。

于是，我在诺贝尔奖的网站上找到了如下的资料介绍其人。从诺奖网站上看到了她的生平介绍，看其生平的前半一小部分有如下描述：

Biobibliographical notes: Alice Munro was born on the 10th of July, 1931 in Wingham, which is in the Canadian province of Ontario. Her mother was a teacher, and her father was a fox farmer. After finishing high school, she began studying journalism and English at the University of Western Ontario, but broke off her studies when she got married in 1951.

而我对其中的fox farmer非常感兴趣，这到底该是个什么职业呢？但从其它网站上还真找不到介绍这究竟是个什么职业。后来居然查到了一个人的帖子，里面讲到了一个小说“Boys and Girls”，引用了一段几百字的英文文字，并询问著者是谁。结果，我发现了秘密。有回复的帖子里说：这是Alice Munto写的，---竟然就是我们今天诺贝尔文学奖得主。

那里对这个小说的简单介绍如下：

Boys and Girls “She’s only a girl” was a very significant statement within the short story, Boys and Girls, by Alice Munto. Boys and Girls was a gender-sensitive short story written in 1968. This story gave an example of the unfair treatment women received throughout that era. It also displayed the hard times that a young girl went through competing with her brother for equal attention and love. Boys and Girls took place on a small, family farm. The father of this family raised, skinned, and sold the pelts of foxes for a living. The mother of this family disapproved of the entire pelting process and wished that it did not take place in their home……

于是，从这里的简单介绍中，以及从Alice Munto的生平介绍中，我终于明白了fox farmer 的含义，并从中也大概知道了今年文学诺奖得主的“身世”。原来，Alice Munto出生在加拿大，其父亲是在一个乡村庄园养殖狐狸为生，而作者从小就就和母亲经常看着父亲如何养着银狐，杀银狐、剥皮，并将毛皮卖掉。小说的主题也是围绕着女人要追求和男人一样平等、自由，女人也要得到公平和爱，对待事情的直觉和本能的判断等（小说中的女主人公将要被屠宰的马放跑了，意味着自由）。

我豁然开朗，作家原本就是要记录生活、再现历史，然后再以各种各样的手法来表现这个过程。每一个人都逃不开他的出生和历史。在加拿大那片富饶的土地上，作者记录着她的人生和曾经发生在那片土地上艰难时代的历史。我们的莫言不也是这样吗？

岁月遗痕，诺奖有迹。