乔伊斯《死者》反讽手法探析

On the Use of Irony in"The Dead"

爱尔兰作家乔伊斯是西方现代主义文学大师,其作品的一大特色就是对反讽手法的高超运用技巧。在早期的重要作品《死者》中,乔伊斯糅合了言语反讽、情境反讽和结构反讽,以揭露爱尔兰人灵魂的僵化和麻痹。言语反讽和情境反讽服务于作品的表层文本,为主题的展示起了铺垫作用;而结构反讽产生于"死者"的象征意义,彰显了故事的深层主题。表层反讽和深层反讽的交错使用赋予了文本意味无穷的魅力。

James Joyce is a great writer in western modernist literature. One of the prominent features of his literary works is the ingenious application of irony. In ＂The Dead＂, an important novella in his early literary career, he blends verbal irony, circumstantial irony and structural irony. They are used to serve the theme, which is to reveal the spiritual petrifaction and paralysis of the Irish. The verbal irony and circumstantial irony comprise the surface structure of the text and foreshadow the theme, whereas the structural irony lies in the symbolic meaning of ＂the dead＂ and helps to reveal the deep theme of the novella. The interlaced use of explicit and implicit irony gives the text a rich meaning and high aesthetic value.