保罗·奥斯特《纽约三部曲》中的反侦探小说叙事艺术

论文摘要

保罗.奥斯特是当代美国文学中备受关注的作家。本文旨在讨论奥斯特的成名作《纽约三部曲》这部后现代主义小说中的“反侦探小说”叙事艺术。文章从叙事内容、叙事结构以及叙事语言这三个方面论述了《纽约三部曲》对于传统侦探小说的颠覆。同时,文章还阐述了在对叙事形式的颠覆和解拆之后所体现出的作者对于人性,对于文学创作以及对于当代人难以言喻的生存困境的思考。奥斯特对于人生的思考是严肃的,表达的主题也是凝重的,但他却借用了侦探小说这一通俗体裁来完成其创作意愿,是有其独特用意的:披上通俗小说的外衣,待故事收获了众多的读者之后,再一步步地挫败读者的阅读期待,逼着他们去思考为什么侦探小说的根基—逻辑分析和因果推理,在这里会完全失灵。表面上似继承了侦探小说的传统,可骨子里奥斯特对这一小说形式是彻底颠覆的。传统侦探小说通常是围绕案情的侦破展开的。收集线索、检查证据、揣度证人的可信度,这些侦探小说中的常见元素,《纽约三部曲》里都有涉略,可奥斯特故意剥除的恰是侦探小说最关键的部分—柳暗花明,水落石出的那一刻。取而代之的是疑问被永久性地悬置,问题无从找出答案。读者曾经习惯的阖卷时的释然感已然不复存在,传统的认识论被拉下了神龛,这里氤氲不散的是后现代世界的不可知性和不确定性。在侦探小说里,最重要最出彩的部分是故事的结局,所有的谜团被逐个解开,侦探们精湛绝伦的分析推理能力得到一次性的展示。这种剧情发展的需要决定了侦探小说往往以时间倒回的方式和线性的叙述手法作为其主要的叙事框架,从发现尸体那一刻逆溯到谋杀动机产生时。而《纽约三部曲》则明确地指出“地点是纽约,时间是现在,并且地点和时间永远不会改变”(Auster 161),三位主人公的侦破没有任何向前进展得希望。没有了终极意义的给出,历史的车轮不再朝前,生活是静态的,盲目而空虚。侦探小说中语言是达意的,意义是清晰的。飘忽不定、模糊混杂、似是而非的状态是侦探们决不能容忍的。他们用最精确的语言描述案发现场的环境以求在头脑里形成清醒的认识;他们迅速地分析处理证人的证词,找出他们话语中的漏洞以求案情的突破;他们善用语言,故意走漏风声,设置陷阱,逼凶手就范…总的来说,侦探小说是笃信语言能够表达客观现实,展现内心情态的。可是在《纽约三部曲》里语言所表示的意义是不确定的,多重的,可以做出不同阐释的。奥斯特甚至把用语言反映现实的困难作为了作品的一个讨论主题。小说作为语言游戏的场所,语言本身而不是事件成了小说的内容。通过对传统侦探小说在叙事内容、叙事结构、叙事语言上的颠覆,奥斯特想要给读者展现的是当代人虚浮、表层、零碎、绝望、非我的生存状态。蚌病成珠般深藏的是主人公隐而不去的伤痛。其实,一直在苦苦追寻的又何止故事里的主人公,作者奥斯特本人借这三个有关追寻与迷失的故事,也在为后现代人叩问个体的有限生命要如何寻得自身生存意义的语境?人类要如何才能走出思想荒原的平面,获得救赎?一味守在固有等级秩序中亦无可能,新的意义又将何时以何种面目出现?

论文目录

• Acknowledgements
• Abstract
• 摘要
• Introduction: Paul Auster and The New York Trilogy
• A.A Brief Review of Paul Auster’s Creative Experience
• 1. Auster’s Fundamental Themes as Reflected in His Delineation of New York City
• 2. Auster’s Rise to Fame After the Publication of The New York Trilogy
• B. The Classification of The New York Trilogy
• C. The Three Stories
• 1. The Wandering Tramps in City of Glass
• 2. The Forlorn Beings in Ghosts
• 3. The Impenetrable Self in The Locked Room
• Chapter I Detective Fiction and Anti-detective Fiction
• A. Detective Fiction and Its Rules
• 1. Detective Fiction as a Genre
• 2. Some Basic Rules Detective Fiction Follows
• 3. The Fundamental Logic Working in a Detective Story
• B. Anti-Detective Fiction and Its Characteristics
• 1. Anti-Detective Fiction as a Genre
• 2. Comparison Between Classic Detective Novel and Auster’s Anti-Detective One
• Chapter II Subversion of Detective Fiction in Narrative Motif
• A. City of Glass: Two Failed Quests and One “Successful”Quest
• 1. Quinn’s Motivation of Losing Himself
• 2. The Two Failed Quests
• 3. Replacement of Causality by Chance
• B. Ghosts: the Constitution of Oneself in the Process of Gazing at the Other
• 1. B1ue’s Penetration into Superficiality
• 2. Constitution of Oneself in the Act of Looking
• 3. “No One Can Cross the Boundary into Another”
• C. The Locked Room: Usurpation of His Opponent in the Process of Investigation
• 1. Relationship Between the Narrator and Fanshawe
• 2. Fanshawe’s Heroic Virtues and the Usurpation of Fanshawe’s Self
• 3. “The Locked Room”As a Symbol of the Impenetrable Self
• Chapter III Subversion of Detective Fiction in Narrative Structure
• A. Disruption of the Temporal Frame
• 1. Disruption of the Temporal Frame in City of Glass
• 2. Disruption of the Temporal Frame in Ghosts
• 3. Disruption of the Temporal Frame in The Locked Room
• B. Story Within the Story
• 1. Insertion of Edgar Allan Poe’s detective story in City of Glass
• 2. Insertion of Hawthorne’s “Wakefield”in Ghosts
• 3. Insertions of Thoreau’s Walden in The Locked Room
• Chapter VI: Subversion of the Denotative Function of Language
• A. Transition in the Role of Language
• 1. Language in Realist Text, Classical Detective Fiction Being a Typical Case
• 2. Language in Postmodern Times
• B. Subversion of the Denotative Function of Language in The New York Trilogy
• 1. Biography, Autobiography or Fiction?
• 2. Victims of the Inadequacy of Language as a Means of Denotation
• 3. Other Victims of the Exhaustion of Language: Allusion to Anthologized Works and Writers
• 4. The Age of Producing Postmodern Text
• Conclusion
• A. Relationship Between Modes of Writing and Motif of Writing
• B. Which One is a More “Faithful”Representation of Life? Detective Story or Anti-Detective Story?
• Works Cited