J.M.库切《耶稣的学生时代》及其“晚年风格”

J.M.Coetzee’s The Schooldays of Jesus and His “Late Style”

库切在移居澳大利亚后,不再在作品中关注种族隔离、族裔身份等主题,而是开始关注作家的身体状况与创作之间的关系,在小说中开始探讨人的"衰老状态"及美学价值,使其作品中呈现一种新的创作风格,也即他自己所说的"晚年风格"。而作为"晚年风格"的重要代表作品,《耶稣的学生时代》在简练直白的语言中,蕴含着深刻的哲理意味:小说运用反讽、互文等手法描写不同人物在理性与激情之间的徘徊,揭示了理性与激情的挣扎,这最终指向"何为认知世界的标准"之追问。其虚构的、寓言式的叙事技巧将人物置身于一个全新的环境中来探索人性和道德的多种可能性,探寻人类的存在方式及自我救赎的能力。

After moving to Australia,Coetzee turns away from the themes of apartheid and ethnic identity,to focus on the relationship between the writer’s physical condition and his creative writing,and discuss the"state of aging"and its aesthetic value,which leads to his so-called"Late Style".As representative work of this style,The Schooldays of Jesus contains profound philosophical meaning in simple and straightforward language:by using irony and intertextuality,he describes different characters’struggle between rationality and irrationality,and points to the question of"What is the standard of knowing the world?"The fictional and allegorical narrative techniques place the characters in a totally new environment to explore the various possibilities of human nature and morality,and to explore human existence and the ability of self-salvation.