評論
打印
Books & arts
文藝板塊
Book review
書評
Britain’s past and present
英國的過去和現在
The sun never sets
日不落
Empireland. By Sathnam Sanghera.
《帝國》，作者：薩瑟南·桑赫拉
As Britain’s global role has shrunk, so the island’s politics have become increasingly insular. But occasionally wider concerns intrude—as in the Brexit saga, or during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year. Both led to anguished debates about Britain’s place in the world, and over British identity more generally.
隨著英國的國際角色日漸萎靡，這一島國的政治也變得愈發孤立。但英國偶爾也會受到國際社會的廣泛關注，比如英國脫歐事件，或者喬治·弗洛伊德去年在明尼阿波利斯死亡后引發的抗議活動。這兩大事件都導致了有關英國的國際地位，以及英國身份的痛苦爭議甚囂塵上。
In these discussions, the British Empire has been fingered as the culprit for many of the country’s problems and neuroses, from racism to a sense of exceptionalism that fuelled Brexit. Statues have been toppled and punches thrown. If, in the past, much of the thinking about empire was blinkered and jingoistic, these days it is often lacerating. British imperialism is identified as the source not only of militarism and hooliganism, but of the irresponsibility of high finance and much besides. In contrast to such polemics, Sathnam Sanghera’s new book is nuanced, intelligent and even entertaining.
在這些討論中，人們將懷疑的矛頭指向大英帝國，認為它是英國許多問題和焦慮（例如：推進英國脫歐的種族主義以及例外主義）的罪魁禍首。英國民眾推倒雕像并拳打腳踢。如果說，在過去，人們大多認為帝國狹隘且大國主義；那么到了如今，人們通常持有抨擊態度。人們認定英帝國主義不僅是軍國主義和流氓行為的根源，也是巨額融資和其他諸多方面的無責任化的根源。薩瑟南·桑赫拉的新書與這樣的激烈論辯截然不同，他的書細致入微，充滿智慧，甚至富有娛樂性。
It is also refreshingly honest. The son of Punjabi immigrants, Mr Sanghera was born in the mid-1970s in Wolverhampton, an industrial town in the West Midlands and a focal point of anti-immigrant politics. He learned nothing about the British Empire at school, he writes. But as wrangles about Brexit and racism swirled around him, he resolved to read up. “Empireland” is the result.
這本書同樣坦率真誠，令人耳目一新。桑赫拉是旁遮普移民的兒子，20世紀70年代中期出生于沃爾弗漢普頓，那里是英國中西部的一座工業城鎮，也是反移民政治的焦點。他在書中寫道，自己在上學時對大英帝國一無所知。但當他身邊充斥著有關脫歐和種族主義的爭論時，他決心要深入鉆研。而“帝國”就是他得到的結果。
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