历史寓言的戏剧建构与阐释:论桑顿·怀尔德的《九死一生》

The Dramatization and Interpretation of Historical Allegory:On Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth

桑顿·怀尔德的《九死一生》是一部以宏大的历史叙事为视角的戏剧式寓言作品。本文在分析了剧中"意此言彼"的寓言修辞之后,指出全剧内在的不确定性是现代寓言得以实现独立的需要。怀尔德故意运用一种含混杂糅的风格,以实现与经典前文本的对话关系。本文通过《九死一生》在不同文化与时代的接受异同,论证了这种讽刺性历史寓言的开放性,并指出这种多义性不同于后现代寓言中带有虚无主义的文本认识论。

Thornton Wilder＇s The Skin of Our Teeth is a dramatic allegory from the historical perspective of grand narrative.After an analysis of the other—speechness in the play,this paper points out that it is the inherent uncertainty that enables a modern allegory to allegorize in its own right.Wilder draws on a grotesque and mixed style,aiming to realize a dialogic relationship with the canonical pretexts.Thus,The Skin of Our Teeth has been produced and received in dramatically different ways in different cultural contexts and times.Yet,such polysemy is not so much a reflection of nihilistic epistemology characteristic of postmodern allegories as an attribute that suggests the openness of Wilder＇s ironic historical allegory.