《第二层皮》:一个后现代喜剧的梦魇世界

Second Skin: a World of Postmodern Comic Nightmare

霍克斯在他的著名小说《第二层皮》中,实验性地运用后现代主义艺术技巧,如不确定的人物形象(既是傻瓜又是英雄)和喜剧的手法(反讽、幽默、夸张),创造了一个喜剧的梦魇世界(梦魇般的人物,噩梦般恐怖的情景,真正的梦魇——由死亡、暴力、战争、残忍和仇恨所主宰的荒诞的人类社会)。霍克斯用喜剧的梦魇、反讽的笔调表现出后现代人类社会的绝望与痛苦,使黑暗与光明并置,使梦幻与现实并置,使隐喻与事实并置,使幽默与恐怖并置,揭示了后现代主义小说不确定性的本质特征。

In his famous novel Second Skin, John Hawkes, experimentally using postmodernist artistic techniques： uncertain character image （both a fool and a hero） and comic ploys （irony, humor, and exaggeration）, creates a world of postmodern comic nightmare （nightmarish characters, horrific scenes like nightmare, and the true nightmare—the absurd human society dominated by death, violence, war, brutality, and animosity）. By using the comic nightmare and his ironic tone, Hawkes represents people＇s despair and pain in the postmodern society and reveals the essential nature of indeterminacy of the postmodernist fiction by means of juxtaposing darkness and rosiness, dream and reality, metaphor and facts, humor and horror.