再现的政治:历史、现实与虚构——论历史书写元小说的理论特征及内涵

Politics of represnetation:history,reality and fiction——On the theoretical features of historiografic metafiction

历史书写元小说是上世纪中后期在欧美出现的新小说形式。它兼具现实主义、现代主义和传统历史小说的部分特征,同时又颠覆它们固有的观念和前提,尤其是对现实主义的历史再现观和现代主义的文本主义提出根本质疑。在语言论转向和历史转向的双重影响下,历史书写元小说着意去探讨和揭示语言在再现历史和现实中所发挥的作用,将一些被人们想当然接受的常识和观念去自然化、去神秘化,渴望以此来破除人们对历史和现实的幻觉,认清其作为话语建构的本质,进而引向现实政治变革的可能。因此,它也就不像詹姆逊等人所批判的那样是反历史、反现实和逃避政治的。

The historiographic metafiction came into being in the second half of last century.While seemingly sharing certain characteristics with the Realistic writing,the Modernist metafiction and the traditional historical novels,it is subversive of their intrinsically presupposed conceptions,among which particularly are the Realistic historical representation and the Modernist textualism.Under the dual influences of the linguistic turn and the narrative turn,the historiographic metafiction endeavors to explore the function of language in representing history and reality,so as to denaturalize and demythologize the taken-for-granted common senses and conventions.By toppling the humanistic illusion about history and reality and bringing to eyes their essence as discursive construction,the author hopes to bring out the possibility of practical political revolution.Thus done,it is anything but anti-historical,unrealistic or apolitical as is denounced by Frederic Jameson.