“时光老人”:难以驾驭的现代灵魂——“小说家哈代为何不写小说”刍议

Father Time:A Modern Soul difficult to rein——An Answer to the Question "Why Hardy Stopped Novel Writing"

哈代小说封笔之作《无名的裘德》中的"时光老人",是英国农村变革过程中裂变出来的一个新人形象,在英国文学史上具有开拓意义。然而,在表现这一形象时,暴露了作者小说创作上的局限性。准确认识和定位如"时光老人"这样的新人与新的价值观念,寻找恰当的文学形式以表现他们,从而延展自己的题材库,这对哈代继续小说创作构成了严峻的挑战。这是哈代小说创作在《无名的裘德》后难以为继中不应该被忽视的重要因素。

In the last novel of Hardy Jude the Obscure, ＂Father Time＂, a new image emerging in the transformation of British country, was of significance of innovation in the history of British literature. However, the writer discovered his limitation when he describing this image. How to exactly understand and orientate new characters such as ＂Father Time＂ and new concept of value, and to express them properly in order to expand his storage of themes, became a great challenge for Hardy in novel writing. This is an important factor of Hardy＇s stopping writing novels after Jude the Obscure.