帕特里夏·沃芙的元小说理论评介

A critical introduction of Patricia Waugh's theories about metafiction

帕特里夏·沃芙是西方最早对元小说作出系统阐释的理论家之一。她把元小说的特点概括为:对创作想象力的颂扬和对自身再现能力的不确定;对语言、形式和写作行为极度的自我关注;对小说与现实之间关系的无所不在的踌躇;戏仿、游戏或过度故作幼稚的写作风格。并从三个层面讨论了元小说的自我意识,即框架意识、游戏意识和视现实为人工制品的虚无意识。此外,通过对元小说的演变历程的分析,沃芙改变了人们对它的偏见,引导人们对其作出客观评价。

As one of the earliest western theorists to give systematic interpretations of metafiction, Patricia Waugh has summarized the characteristics of metafiction as follows： a celebration of the power of the creative imagination together with an uncertainty about the validity of its representations; an extreme self-consciousness about language, literary form and the act of writing fictions; a pervasive insecurity about the relationship of fiction to reality; a parodic, playful, excessive or deceptively naive style of writing. She has also discussed the self-consciousness of metafiction on three levels, that is, the consciousness about frame, play, and the nihilistic viewing of rerality as artefact. Furthermore, her analysis of the ＂sliding scales＂ of metafiction has helped to change prejudice against it and made more objective evaluations.