申丹《短篇叙事小说的文体与修辞:显性情节后面的隐性进程》序言

Preface to Dan Shen's Style and Rhetoric in Short Narrative Fiction

申丹的《短篇叙事小说的文体与修辞》有力地提出了一套关于叙事进程的新理论,其严谨的论证令人信服,回应了该领域一些亟待解决的问题。本书对仅关注情节发展的传统做法提出质疑,揭示出在显性情节和潜藏在表层文本后面的"隐性进程"之间通常存在着某种反讽性差异,并通过六篇叙事文本的阐释实践加以佐证。本书与新亚里士多德学派的修辞性叙事学一脉相承,但大大拓展了其研究范畴。对隐性进程的发掘还可以使读者认识到,某些小说(如曼斯菲尔德的《苍蝇》)真正的道德寓意可能在很大程度上不同于以往批评家的公认评判。

Dan Shen's Style and Rhetoric in Short Narrative Fiction develops with impressive rigor and exigency apowerful new theory of narrative progression.It challenges the traditional focus on plot development and recognizes in various narratives an often ironic discrepancy between the overt plot and a'covert progression'hidden behind the open one,as is well illustrated by the six narratives analyzed in the book.This book is in the tradition of Neo-Aristotelian rhetorical narrative study,but significantly expands its scope.The recognition of covert progressions also leads to the perception that the ethical implications of a story like Mansfield's'The Fly'may be quite different from what previous critics have identified.