通過(guò)《肖申克的救贖》審視文化欣賞差異

1、跨文化交際學(xué)期論文學(xué)號(hào)：20094092219從肖申克的救贖審視文化欣賞差異Looking at Cultural Appreciations Differences from "Shawshank Redemption"Name: Zhang LanInstructor: Wang YanCollege: Arts & ScienceMajor: EnglishHeilongjiang Bayi Agricultural UniversityDaqing·ChinaOct., 2011AbstractThe movie "Shawshank R

2、edemption" was issued in 1994 in Hollywood. Its a story about a great banker Andy with a promising future but was wrongly sentenced 20 years in prison and eventually escaped successfully. It was regarded as a tribute to all the inspirational films. This paper is to show some cultural characters

3、 of heroism and the culture of faith to further explore the film reflected the unique culture of the United States. It aims to show differences between cultural appreciations from the film, such as the purpose of watching a movie, and the differences about appreciating it.Keywords "Shawshank Re

4、demption" heroism; religious culture摘 要電影肖申克的救贖于1994年在好萊塢發(fā)行，講述的是一個(gè)前途大好的銀行家安迪含冤入獄20年之后成功越獄的故事，是一部人人稱頌的勵(lì)志好片。本文擬對(duì)影片中蘊(yùn)含的美國(guó)文化元素進(jìn)行解讀，如英雄主義文化特征和信仰文化，旨在幫助我們更好地理解電影中所體現(xiàn)的美國(guó)特有的文化。并從文化欣賞的視角對(duì)國(guó)人和外國(guó)人對(duì)同一部影片的理解進(jìn)行比較，找出差異。關(guān)鍵詞 肖申克的救贖；英雄主義；宗教文化 IntroductionThe first time I knew this movie was in a class when one of

5、 my classmates offered to introduce us a great movie. She said she just finished seeing this movie the other day. When she was telling the story, she was very excited. She said she had never seen a character that with such a strong mind and was so yearning for freedom. They can offer anything to tra

6、de for freedom, even though it may take them a long time to make it. They were like birds which cannot be caged, because their feathers were too bright. At last, she strongly recommended it to us. At first, I didnt pay much attention to the movie because it is too long. But one year later, when I ha

7、ppened to ask one of my foreign teachers for advice about writing on the newspaper, he invited me to attend his class of English Listening and Speaking and I was happy to join them to see a movie. It turned out that the movie they were studying was "Shawshank Redemption". What a coincidenc

8、e! As a result, I had a wonderful journey of seeing this movie from a foreigners eyes. My foreign teacher is a British gentleman, who has taught English in China for 4 years. He knows China well; he knows what we think, so he can interpret this movie better for us. Consequently, he showed us a diffe

9、rent way to appreciate this famous movie, which from the prospective of a European. From what I saw and what my teacher saw from a same film, I was very surprised by the huge differences about appreciations between us. If we bring it to the broad sense, we can easily come to the conclusion that ther

10、e are many differences between cultural appreciations from "Shawshank Redemption". And I would like to show these differences to you in the following paper. A film is a two-sided mirror, through it, Americans see the world, and we see the United States. Before we come to talk about the dif

11、ferences between appreciations on the same film, I am going to show two aspects of American culture reflected in the movie, which are individual heroism and redemption. One, cultural features of individual heroism in the film Americans have a strong self-centered concept, they believe in individuali

12、sm, and always put the pursuit of personal happiness and freedom on the core position, and strive to make it become a social common understanding. This unique value plays an important role in the history of social and individual development. Films can directly reflect a nation's culture, so Amer

13、ican films also strongly promote self-centered individual heroism. The movie "Shawshank Redemption" applies a gentle and slightly dark humor way to recopy the individual heroism of American dominant culture. Andy was shaped into a mythical character, whose heart was full of hope. Wrongly c

14、harged for the murder of his wife and his wife's lover, he was sent to the Shawshank prison. Even so, in a 20-year depressive and brutal prison life, Andy did not give in, but established his important position in the prison. With continuous efforts, Andy spent 19 years digging a tunnel, which o

15、thers thought would take 600 years to get through. Undoubtedly, Andy was a hero in this movie; he not only saved his spirits, but saved other prisoners.Two, redemptionreligious culture in the filmThe term "redemption” originated in the "Old Testament Isaiah". Obviously, it symbolizes

16、Christ's practice of thinking and has very important significance. The film "Shawshank Redemption" is a story of salvation in the years of insufficiency of faith. The most impressive part in the movie is the interpretation of “redemption”. Naturally, the redeemer is Andy, in the 20-yea

17、r prison career; and with his actions Andy not only changed his own destiny, but also affected other prisoners.When it comes to the differences about appreciating a movie between English and a Chinese, it can be shown in two ways.First, their appreciations about the story of a movie are different.Ta

18、ke a Chinese as an example, usually, we see a foreign movie just for fun. We go to a cinema to see a foreign movie often out of curiosity，and when we see a movie in a cinema, its already translated into our own language, at this point, its original beauty has decreased a lot. Like I see the “Shawsha

19、nk Redemption”, at the beginning, I didnt want to know further about it; all I wanted to know was its plot, and the destiny of every character in the movie. After I had finished watching it, I wouldnt give a second thought about the theme or the reasons why people made such a film. All I could remem

20、ber was the rough story, and I even couldnt remember the names of the characters. However, my foreign teacher will have a different way of appreciating this movie. They are not only interested in its plot, they also pay attention to its theme, what the film tries to express or reflect. As a native s

21、peaker, they may have much the same understanding of the movie, and will have different inspirations about it.Second, the appreciations on culture are different between native audience and foreign audience. When we see a foreign movie, we will focus more on the story than the cultural details. But n

22、ative audience will be aware of the details which can distinct it from other movies from other countries. When I joined my teacher to see the “Shawshank Redemption”, he would make it pause sometimes, and told us the cultural backgrounds in the movie. When Andy was first saw in the prison, many old p

23、risoners called him “fish”, and they were fishing them on the packs of cigarettes. Here “fish” doesnt mean a real fish in the water, it represents those newcomers. The old prisoners fished them, which means they bet on them. Without my teachers explanation, I wouldnt understand what a “fish” means i

24、n a prison. And a second scene I want to say is that, when you watch the movie, actors are saying English, so by which scene can you tell its an American movie, not a British one, or an Australian one? Well, from my teachers analysis, in the movie, when the prisoners were playing baseball on the playground. From this scene, we can easily know it is an American film.ConclusionWhen the free and normal life has gone, our expectations about it will increase enormously, and we