《漂浮的歌剧》中的叙事怪圈与人格分裂

Narrative Closure and Schizophrenia in The Floating Opera

约翰·巴斯在《漂浮的歌剧》中对存在主义哲学命题的处理具有明显的两重性:呈现人物对荒诞性的体验,同时人物的经历又演绎了命题本身的荒诞性,把承诺与自由的观念引向可笑的结局。这种处理现代主义文学和哲学观念的手法代表了巴斯小说起步的基调,也说明巴斯与现代主义文学的离异在其早期作品中已见端倪,注意这种两重性对理解巴斯后来的作品十分关键,也是讨论巴斯小说风格形成的重要依据。

This paper focuses on the duality in John Barth's treatment of existentialist thesis in The Floating Opera,which presents the experience of absurdity of the characters and highlights the absurdity of the experience itself,thus driving notions of freedom and commitment to farcical effect. The paper regards this dual treatment as crucial to understanding Barth's later works in that it is symptomatic of Barth's deviation from modernist literature and philosophy,and constitutive of Barth's fictional style as a whole.