从社会批判精神的张扬到人生意义的追问——读戴维·洛奇的《失聪宣判》

From Publicizing Social Critical Spirit to Questioning the Meaning of Life: On David Lodge’s Deaf Sentence

戴维·洛奇的校园三部曲上世纪末在中国曾产生广泛影响,他的新作《失聪宣判》仍以大学教授为主人公,在原来一贯主题上进一步拓展和深化、继续对学院里文化精神的沦落做尖锐批判的同时,通过对贝茨教授退休和耳聋造成的困境的描写,表现了叙述主体坦率、诚恳的自我反省态度,作品中关于主人公衰老、病痛体验的描述,以及对于死亡威胁的思索,写出老龄化带来的普遍问题,作者把着力点放在对人生意义的认真探索上面,给读者深刻的启迪。

David Lodge＇s ＂Campus Trilogy＂ exerted an extensive influence in China at the end of last century. His new novel, Deaf Sentence, again employing a university professor as the protagonist, is an extension and deepening of the consistent theme of his campus novels. By revealing the predicaments faced by Professor Bates due to his retirement and deafness, the novel not only exercises a sharp critique of the loss of cultural spirit in academic life, but also manifests the honest and sincere introspection of a scholar. By describing the protagonist＇s experiences of aging and diseases and his meditations on the threat of death, the novel exposes the universal problems brought about by old age. The author＇s focus is on the quest of the meaning of life, which is of much enlightenment to the reader.