《高原牛的家》是多丽丝·莱辛早期作品之一,评论对其少有关注。然而有别于康拉德的《黑暗之心》、福斯特的《印度之行》,该小说的主人公既不是追求权力的管理者,也不是探险猎奇的游客,而是受制于集体身份的普通白人。作品中,莱辛把弱小人生放在与历史相背的社会中考量,揭示在社会波澜不惊的表面下凡夫俗子复杂多变的心路历程:理想遭遇现实终至平庸的宿命。小人物理想的破灭,这是一个超越了殖民地语境,更为宽广的主题,而评论却往往从后殖民的角度对这部作品进行解读,忽略了作者超越时空的高远用意。 One of Doris Lessing’s early works, The Highland Cow’s Home, comments little on it. However, unlike Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” and Forster’s “trip to India”, the protagonist of this novel is neither a manager who pursues power nor a traveler who adventures in adventure, but is subject to collective identities Ordinary white people. In his works, Lessing considers weak life to be considered in the society opposite to history, revealing the complex and changeable mentality of ordinary people under the placid surface of society: the ideal encounters the fate of the mediocre reality. This is a broader theme that transcends the colonial context. Commentaries, however, tend to interpret this work from the perspective of post-colonialism and neglect the lofty intention of the author to transcend time and space.