史蒂文·休梅克

Before I get to the question of influence， I’m going to talk about the strangeness of Hemingway’s “reception history，” which is more complicated， and more genuinely complex， than that of any writer I have encountered. Here are a few of the ways he has been read over the years.

As a journalist and sometime war correspondent who led an exciting life and wrote down what happened.

As a consummate literary artist dedicated to the craft of writing. In this guise， he is also known for what the Nobel Prize committee called his “powerful， style-forming mastery of the art of modern narration.” He saw himself as searching for a new mode of expression， even a new language， working along the same lines as other modernist innovators like James Joyce， Ezra Pound， and Gertrude Stein. （But the fresh new style he forged was so striking， and yet so apparently “simple，” that he was frequently imitated， and eventually parodied.）

As a frivolous expatriate， decadent and rootless， who engaged in a popular form of travel writing.

As a representative of the manly life， capturing manly pleasures like hunting， camping， fishing， and boxing， for an audience of men， and writing frequently about male “code heroes1，” who exhibit “grace under pressure.”

As a deeply Romantic writer， committed to exploring the depths of love between men and women， often against a backdrop of rapidly evolving customs and morals.

As a confronter of the existentialist void， writing profoundly about the experience of “nada.” （“Our nada who art in nada…”2）

As， in Wyndham Lewis’s3 phrase， a sort of “dumb ox，” with nary4 a brain in his head， who somehow manages to speak.

As a misogynist， most of whose female characters are “bitches” whose main goal is to destroy men.

As a feminist writer， questioning masculine and feminine roles， and writing strong female characters， some of them feminine “code heroes” in their own right5.

As an artist of gender exploration and even transformation， anticipating recent ideas about gender fluidity.

His influence on American literature has not yet caught up with the range of possibilities to be found in his work， and his popular reception as a “manly” writer is still dominant in many people’s minds. I wouldn’t be surprised， though， if we eventually see some new fiction writers who are influenced instead by the shape-shifting Hemingway I have described here. But I suspect that direct imitation of the style has played out about as far as it goes. An earlier answer mentions Hemingway’s direct influence on male American writers like Raymond Chandler and Norman Mailer. Through writers like Chandler， Hemingway definitely helped to shape the prose of hard-boiled detective fiction6， though he didn’t write it himself （he comes closest to the sort of hard-boiled writing that involves actual gangsters in his short story The Killers and his novel To Have and Have Not）. Mailer took the “manly” style and further explored its existentialist edge， as well as building on Hemingway’s fascination with violence and death. Short story writers like Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff learned a lot from Hemingway， and many of Hemingway’s own short stories are masterpieces， constituting his best work. The best of these stories have a distilled， poetic quality and it may be that quality that has had， and will continue to have， the most influence.

在谈到影响问题之前，我想先谈谈海明威奇特的“接受历程”，那比我所接触的任何作家的接受历程都更加复杂，也着实更加匪夷所思。以下便是多年来人们对海明威的几种解读：

他是个记者，一度还当过战地记者，过着颇为刺激的生活，并将之记录下来。

他致力于写作艺术，是个造诣极深的文艺家。在这方面，他又以诺贝尔奖委员会评价其“精湛有力、独树一格的现代叙事艺术”而著称于世。他自认是在摸索一种新的表达方式，甚至是一种新的语言，是在与其他的现代主义先驱——如詹姆斯·乔伊斯、埃兹拉·庞德、格特鲁德·斯泰因等——进行同样性质的探索。（但是，他所创造的风格如此鲜明独特，令人耳目一新，却未免流于“简单”，以致经常有人故意模仿他，甚至嘲弄他。）

他去国离乡、不务正业、颓废堕落、无根无基，作品属于流行文类的旅行写作。

他是男性生活的代言人，为男性读者描写男性喜闻乐见之事，例如狩猎、野营、钓鱼和拳击等，并经常塑造在“重压之下不失优雅”的男性“准则英雄”。

他致力于探讨男女两性之爱所能达到的深度，是位极其浪漫的作家，并经常将爱情故事置于快速变化的风俗和道德背景中。

他直面存在主义的虚无，作品深刻反映了“虚无”的体验。（例如“我们在虚无中的虚无……”）

借用温德姆·刘易斯的用词，他是一头“愚蠢的公牛”，没有长一丁点儿脑子，却不知怎么居然学会了说话。

他憎恨女性，作品中的大多数女性角色都是“婊子”，其主要目标就是摧毁男性。

他是位女性主义作家，挑战男女的性别角色，塑造了强大的女性形象，她们有些仅凭自身便是女性版的“准则英雄”。

他是位探讨性别问题甚至性别变化问题的艺术家，预见了近年来关于性別流动性的看法。

海明威对美国文学的影响目前还没有充分反映出其作品解读的宽度。在许多人看来，他主要还是作为一个“硬汉”作家被接受的。不过，假如将来出现一些新的小说家，他们受到的影响来自我上文描述的海明威的各个方面，我丝毫不会感到吃惊。但是我怀疑，对海明威风格的直接模仿已经基本到头了。之前有人指出海明威对雷蒙德·钱德勒和诺曼·梅勒等美国男作家产生的直接影响。通过影响钱德勒等作家，海明威的确帮助塑造了那种硬汉派侦探小说的行文风格，虽然他本人并没有写过此类小说（海明威的短篇小说《杀手》和长篇小说《有钱人和没钱人》比较接近那种涉及真正犯罪集团的硬汉派侦探小说）。梅勒吸收了海明威的硬汉风格且进一步探讨了其存在主义边际，还将海明威对暴力和死亡的迷恋有所发挥。包括雷蒙德·卡弗和托拜厄斯·沃尔夫在内的短篇小说作家从海明威那里学到了很多。海明威本人的许多短篇小说都称得上经典，是其作品的精华所在。这些短篇中的最优秀作品都精简凝炼，具有诗意，而这正是海明威已经产生并将持续产生其最大影响力的所在。

（译者单位：北京外国语大学英语学院）