摘要
本文旨在探讨英语小说如何生发于不同历史时期独特的文类范畴和社会范畴中的一些不稳定因素,及其如何反映并尝试解决这些不稳定因素。这些不稳定因素不仅构成了体裁形成的对立统一关系,而且揭示了小说的内部结构如何讲述自身的历史、记录人物的(叙述性)真实和(个人)美德。按照麦克昂在《英国小说的起源:1600-1740》中的观点,小说蕴含着一些可以称之为"质疑真实"和"质疑美德"的不稳定因素。这些不稳定因素在威廉·戈德温的小说《卡勒布·威廉斯》中得到充分表现。这部小说勾画了主人公努力保持、证明、宣传自己叙述的真实性及其维护自己被误解了的美德的艰苦历程。卡勒布从自我中心到道德至上的转变源于这一人物对真实所表现的叛逆性的"桀骜不驯的好奇心",后者经过融入后来形成的悔恨和自责等美德而变得成熟。吊诡的是,这部小说颠倒了真实和美德的概念,转而探讨有关界定无罪还是有罪的伦理问题。
This paper calls for an examination of how the English novel is born of, reflects, and attempts to resolve certain ＂instabilities＂ in generic and social categories that are characteristic of each historical period. Such instabilities not only form a dialectic of genre formations but also expose how the internal structures of the novel tell its own history recording the account of a character＇s （narrative） truth and （personal） virtue. The novel, according to Michael McKeon, in The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740, embodies instabilities that are designated as ＂Questions of Truth＂ and ＂Questions of Virtue.＂ These instabilities are enacted in William Godwin＇s novel, Caleb Williams, which delineates the painstaking process of the hero＇s struggle to preserve, prove, and publicizes the truth of his narrative and vindicates his misinterpreted life of virtue. Caleb＇s transformation from egocentricity to moral triumph begins with the character＇s rebellious ＂ungoverned curiosity＂ for truth, which matures into newly acquired virtues of remorse and guilt. Paradoxically, Godwin＇s novel reverses the concepts of truth and virtue to probe ethical questions defining innocence and guilt.
出处
《外国文学研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2014年第1期11-23,共13页
Foreign Literature Studies
基金
supported by the Grants of Professors of Sungshin Women’s University in 2013
