摘要
《伊丽莎白·科斯特洛:八堂课》由八篇小故事组成,以虚构的女作家伊丽莎白.科斯特洛在各种学术场合所发表或聆听的演讲为主要内容,而其中六篇就是库切本人所做演讲的讲稿,因此可以被看作是"作为演讲的虚构小说"。库切在这些演讲中没有遵循传统的演讲模式,而是采用小说家擅长的虚构叙事,不仅探讨现实主义、理性主义等抽象话题,也展示了人物的论辩过程及其困惑、愤怒等情感,建构起多重声音对话的空间。这一手法凸显了虚构叙事本身所具有的思辨能力,在形式和内容上对演讲这种理性话语进行了重新审视,赋予了虚构叙事以新的特质和功能。此外,这种演讲/叙事方式也表明了库切对小说家身份的重新界定:小说家的主要任务不在于传递思想,而在于发掘思想形成的根源、过程及其产生的影响,从而使听众/读者跟随叙事对人性进行更为深入的思考。
Elizabeth Costello:Eight Lessons consists of eight short stories, each about a fictional female writer Elizabeth Costello giving or attending lectures and public speeches. Six of them were the speeches Coetzee himself gave on different occasions. Thus Eight Lessons is in fact fiction-as-lecture. Coetzee did not follow the traditional mode of public speech. Instead, he used fictional language, not only discussing abstract topics such as realism and rationalism, but also disclosing the process of challenging and defending opinions, and personal feelings like confusion and anger in this process. In this way, Coetzee adheres to his role as a novelist, constructing an open space where different voices collide and converge. Thus the form of fiction-as-lecture not only challenges rationalism which dominates traditional lecture, but also endows fiction with a force of reasoning. This specific speech/narrative mode also illustrates Coetzee's re-definition of the main task of the novelist, which is not to convey ideas, but to explore their origin, development and consequences. Thus Coetzee leads the audience and readers into a deeper exploration of human nature.
出处
《外国文学》
CSSCI
北大核心
2011年第3期3-10,157,共8页
Foreign Literature
基金
江苏省社科基金资助项目"库切笔下的作家及其小说创作思想研究"(09WWC007)
