布兰顿的意义理论与纳博科夫的小说《绝望》

Brandom's theory of meaning and Nabokov's Despair

当代俄裔美国作家纳博科夫的小说《绝望》采用第一人称叙事为读者同时呈现了两个完全不同的故事:一是叙述者兼主人公赫尔曼创作"完美艺术作品"的故事,二是透过赫尔曼的一言一行、读者所发现的恶棍兼疯子的主人公杀人骗保的故事。当代实用分析主义语言哲学家罗伯特·布兰顿的意义理论为文学语用学提供一个较好的理论框架。本文运用布兰顿的意义理论,剖析《绝望》中文本意义的产生、小说的语言机制和叙事机制,重点探讨该小说的表层叙事和深层叙事,揭示隐藏在表层叙事之下的深层叙事如何在文本中同时呈现并逐渐颠覆表层叙事。

Though Vladimir Nabokov＇ s novel Despair uses first - person narration, it presents the readers with two entirely different stories. One is the story told by Hermann, the narrator and protagonist of this novel. He claims that what he is doing is creating a perfect ＂work of art＂. The other is found by readers. After a closereading they realize that Hermann is actually a villain and lunatic who commits insurance fraud. The theory of meaning of Robert Brandom, a contemporary linguistic philosopher who advocates pragmatism and analytic philosophy, provides a practical theoretical frame for literary pragmatits. In light of Brandom＇ s theory of meaning this paper analyzes the emergence of meaning, the language mechanism and narrative techniques in Despair. It especially focuses on the surface and underlying narrative in this novel, and reveals how the underlying narrative functions simultaneously and destabilizes the surface narrative ultimately.