悬疑案中的战争揭秘——《迦太基》的叙事策略探析

Disclosing War Story in the Mystery of Carthage:An Analysis of the Narrative Strategy

《迦太基》是美国当代作家欧茨(Joyce Carol Oates,1939—)2014年的新作。在表层框架上,作者利用读者对悬疑小说这一文类的阅读期待,采用悬疑线性叙事情节讲述女主人公克蕾茜德(Cressida)深夜突然失踪和七年后的回归以及整个家庭因之发生的变化;表层叙事背后则是借用失踪案嫌疑人金凯德(Kincaid)在案件中的自首、受审和监禁,嵌入其在伊拉克战争中的所见、所闻和所历。本文分析作品叙事策略,指出欧茨采用悬疑小说这一文类的目的在于吸引读者进入所预设的战争故事空间。小说中的后现代写作手法如多元叙述声音、时空错序则使得战争叙事情节断裂,需要读者如同阅读悬疑小说一样不断回读、拼凑并还原出战争真相,这种对战争故事中的悬疑情节及碎片化的处理更能唤起读者对9.11后美国政府开展的系列反恐战争的记忆、质疑和反思。

Carthage（ 2014） is a newly released novel by contemporary American writer Joyce Carol Oates. The author takes advantage of readers＇ expectation of mystery,i. e. readers would get highly involved in reasoning,uncovering and demystifying what happens in the story,and chronologically tells Cressida,the heroine＇s sudden missing at midnight,return after 7 years and changes happened in the whole family. In fact,with Kincaid,the suspect＇s confession,trials and imprisonment inserted in the missing-return mystery,Kincaid＇s experience in Iraq is foregrounded and revealed. By analyzing its narrative strategies,this essay concludes that Oates adopts the genre of mystery to guide the readers into the predesigned Iraqi war story,and the postmodern writing strategies like multiple-narrative voices,disordering of time and space hinder and break up the plot of war story,which demands the reader to re-read,collage and disclose the underneath fact of Iraqi war. The mysterious plot and fragmentary narration of the war story can forcefully arouse the readers＇ memory,doubt and reflection upon the American government＇s anti-terrorism wars after 9. 11.