“重写小说”中的“重读”结构 ——以《杰克·麦格斯》和《匹普先生》为例

Acts of “Reading” and Structural Difference in Revisionary Re-Writing: A Comparative Study of Jack Maggs and Mister Pip

小说范畴的"重写"以经典小说为"前文本",通过反转人物关系、重塑人物形象、切换视角等叙事策略,使"重写"与"前文本"形成结构差异,引发读者对经典进行重新阅读。这一现象在后殖民文学批评领域被视为对文化帝国主义的象征抵抗。本文认为,"重写小说"的结构方式多种多样,因此,对"重写小说"的解释不能囿于后殖民文学批评长期强调的"帝国逆写"模式。文章以《杰克·麦格斯》和《匹普先生》为例,分析两部作品分别以"作者阅读"和"人物阅读"呈现的不同结构关系。以作家对《远大前程》的"对位阅读"为"重读"立场,《杰克·麦格斯》通过情节重置使"重写"与"前文本"形成"同故事内嵌式"结构;这种"重写"既是作者对"前文本"的"重读",也是重写文本以互文结构向"作者的读者"发出的阐释召唤。与此不同,《匹普先生》以故事中人物阅读行为,强调经典小说对读者的情感结构的影响。

＂Revisionary fiction＂ or ＂revisionary re-writing,＂ as is sometimes called, belongs to the general category of canon revision. Using canonical novels as ＂pretexts,＂ revisionary stories resort to various narrative strategies, such as reconstructing story lines, turning character relations upside down, shifting narrative perspectives, all of which repeat the ＂pretexts＂ with different degrees of narrative difference, which in turn, evoke different interpretations. Unfortunately, these narratological differences are often subjected to the limited interpretive protocols ofpostcolonial oppositional readings. To illustrate the structural differences of canon revision, this article takes a close look at Jack Maggs and Mister Pip--both are categorized within postcolonial responses to Charles Dickens. Concentrating on the textual representation of acts of ＂reading＂ in the two texts--one in the interpretive strategy of ＂contrapuntal reading＂ conducted by the revisionary writer, the other in the act of reading/listening by characters in the story world, the present discussion reveals how acts of reading （within and without） invoke different responses to the canon as well as its revision.