穿古装唱新戏——论《寻欢作乐者的历史》的书写策略

Singing and Acting in the New Play by Wearing Ancient Costume:On the Writing Strategies in History of a Pleasure Seeker

理查德·梅森2011年新作《寻欢作乐者的历史》从书名到故事背景、从情节设置到用典等技术手法的运用无不给人以厚重的历史感,但小说所反映的问题——金融危机、不同阶层之间的冲突、忠诚、同性恋等又总是散发着清新抑或腐败的现代气息。这是一部穿戴笨重的古装唱着新戏的成长小说。"借古讽今"是这部小说的基本书写策略,它反映了当代英美成长小说对以德国为代表的经典成长小说的继承与革新并存的发展新趋势。

Richard Mason's latest novel History of a Pleasure Seeker impresses the reader with a massive sense of history by its title and settings,together with the writing techniques such as its plot design and the rendition of allusion,but what the novel reflects—financial crisis,the conflicts between different ranks and classes,disloyalty and homosexuality,etc.—gives off a delicate fragrance or rotting smell of today.It is a Bildungsroman which sings and acts in the new play by wearing ancient costume.'Using the past to comprehend the present'is the basic writing strategy of this novel.It reflects the new developments of British and American Bildungsroman,which both inherits and innovates on the classic Bildungsroman represented by German novels of this genre.