历史阴影下的文学与肖像画——论村上春树的《刺杀骑士团长》

Literature and Portraiture in the Shadow of History: On Haruki Murakami's Killing Commendatore

村上春树在他的近作《刺杀骑士团长》中延续了《奇鸟行状录》之后对于日本历史和战争记忆的忧思,同时也再次运用"洞"的隐喻来表达当代日本人为抵抗消费社会的异化所进行的精神求索。尽管这部小说与村上之前作品有诸多相似之处,但我们不应该忽视他在写作中对绘画艺术(尤其是肖像画)的本体论和再现理论所进行的自觉反思。《刺杀骑士团长》中内嵌的艺术理论思辨绝不只是小说家编制情节的工具,而是体现了村上春树近年来对历史创伤和艺术再现阈限的深入思考。

In his latest novel Killing Commendatore, Haruki Murakami recycles his lugubrious meditation on Japanese history and its war memory. He also re-employs the figure of "hole" to render the spiritual quest of contemporary Japanese who endeavor to battle the estrangement brought about by the consumer society. For all the striking similarities between this novel and his preceding works, this essay argues that we should not overlook his self-conscious reflection on the ontology of art(portraiture in particular) and theories on representation. Embedded in Killing Commendatore, those lengthy and discursive dialogues on the arts are not simply plot-making props, but rather Murakami’s up-todate contemplation on historical trauma and the threshold of artistic representation.