艾丽斯·默多克与后现代叙事语境

Iris Murdoch in the Context of Postmodern Narrative

英国著名作家艾丽斯·默多克的很多小说作品都极具实验性,给人一种与时俱进的感觉。但细细品味之后,人们会发现这些实验特征恰恰是对同时期一些主流文学创作理论的批驳或颠覆。表面上看,默多克的小说理念和道德哲学思想显得与时代有些格格不入。然而,她虽对各种元叙述和概括性理论提出质疑,其小说作品中却不乏后现代主义风格的游戏、戏仿和反讽。在其作品中,读者可以感觉到,事实具有不可靠性、清晰而深刻的认识只在瞬息之间、最大的事实始终都是虚幻不定的。这是默多克小说所蕴含的时代特征和超前意识。

As one of the most prominent contemporary British writers, Iris Murdoch is known for her experimental works. However, a close reading reveals that most of her experimental devices contain severe criticism or subversion of the contemporary literary trends. Seemingly, Murdoch＇ s literary ideal and moral philosophy are not quite in tune with her time. The interesting fact is that while she obviously questions the concepts of metafiction and other generalizing theories, there are quite a few devices in her works that may well be described as postmodern, such as playfulness, parody and irony. In many of her works there is a prevailing sense of unreliability of so-called facts, transient awareness of knowledge and illusive ultimate truth. Indeed, she is a vanguard of her time.