《等待野蛮人》:老行政长官的主题功能解析

Waiting for the Barbarians:An Analysis of the Old Magistrate's Thematic Function

《等待野蛮人》是2003年诺贝尔文学奖得主——J.M.库切的第一部小说。小说采用同故事自身叙述的手法,揭示了帝国野蛮与残暴的本质,引发了读者对文明与野蛮的深刻反思,文明与野蛮的冲突是小说的重要主题之一。通过对小镇行政长官对"帝国文明行为"的不敢苟同到最后公开的反抗可以体验到库切在塑造这样一位人物时对人物主题功能的技巧运用已达到了炉火纯青的地步。从小镇行政长官的人物建构入手,解读其在小说主题建构中所起的主题功能。

Waiting for the Barbarians is the first novel by J.M.Coetzee,the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.The novel tells the experiences of an old magistrate of a small county on the frontier of the Empire in a military action towards the ＂barbarians＂,and uncovers the barbarianism and cruelty of the Empire.Meanwhile,the novel oversets the concepts of barbarianism and civilization which arouses readers＇ speculation on barbarianism and civilization.Thus the overset of barbarianism and civilization becomes one of the novel＇s themes.This paper intends to analyze the main character,namely the old magistrate＇s function in setting up this theme from the perspective of narratology.