洪素珊的小說《用筷子吃蛋糕》中有關「跨文化能力」之探討

Intercultural Competence in Susanne Hornfeck’s Novel Eating Cake with Chopsticks

德國作家洪素珊在2012 年出版的小說《用筷子吃蛋糕》，敘述的是第二次世界大戰期間一個德國家庭的故事。身為猶太人的父親在1938 年水晶之夜之後，被迫帶著妻子和女兒離開德國，逃難到上海。小說的主角是女兒英格，故事主要內容是描述她從十歲到十九歲的成長過程、對於新文化的探索與適應過程以及文化認同方面的改變過程。而「跨文化能力」則是在這些過程中最關鍵的能力。「跨文化能力」是從二十世紀後半開始備受矚目的概念，如今它的重要性在教育、政治與經濟方面皆已廣泛被認同，甚至被視為生活在二十一世紀全球化世界的關鍵能力之一。本文首先介紹「跨文化能力」的定義以及近幾年德語區對此概念的一些重要研究，然後在這個基礎之上來分析小說主人翁英格如何運用跨文化能力來面對適應異國新環境的種種挑戰，並且發展出新的文化認同與歸屬感。

Susanne Hornfeck’s in 2012 published German novel „Torte mit Stäbchen” (Eating Cake with Chopsticks) is about a German family during World War II. Because the father is Jewish, the family has to emigrate to Shanghai after the Kristallnacht in 1938. Main character of the novel is daughter Inge Finkelstein, who is 10 years old at the beginning of the novel and 19 years at the end. The novel focuses on the Finkelstein’s acculturation in China, the process of Inge’s growing up and the development of her cultural identity. In these processes, Intercultural Competence plays an important role. The term Intercultural Competence came up in the second half of the last century and has meanwhile reached broad pedagogical, economical and political relevance. It can be considered as one of the key competences of the 21st century. This paper gives at first a summary of some of the most popular recent German research papers on Intercultural Competence and the related concepts of acculturation and integration. On this basis, the text of the novel is analyzed and interpreted using these concepts. In the resulting interpretation of this novel, the heroine plays the role of an interculturally competent person, and this competence enables her to get integrated in Shanghai so successful that at the end of the novel she identifies herself with this city and its culture and doesn’t want to leave any more.