时间外的世界:论《洪堡的礼物》的叙事艺术

The world beyond time: The narrative art in Humboldt's Gift

小说《洪堡的礼物》最引人注目的艺术特点之一就是索尔·贝娄对复杂时间的精妙运用和理性掌控。作者贝娄把所有人物的活动都置于时间这个维度中,通过打乱自然时间秩序,有意隔断故事与外在时间的链接,借助主人公查理·西特林记忆的持续发酵和回忆的反复转换与生成,将过去与现在并置,将外部场景与内心感悟融合,在揭露和控诉性的叙述中织罗起一张时间大网,让人物在多维时间中穿梭,在复杂事件中成长,以此来展示自己的准确目光和对生活的深刻认识。

The striking artistic feature in Humboldt＇s Gift is its precise use and national controlling of complex time by the author Saul Bellow. Bellow arranges all characters＇ activities in the temporal dimension. Through disrupting the natural time order and separating the connection between the story and its external time,with the benefit of the protagonist Charlie Citrine＇s sustained fermentation and transformation as well as generation of his memories,he juxtaposes the past with the present and integrates the external scene and inner perception. While Bellow builds the time relationships in the narration of exposing and criticizing the characters,he lets them move in multi-dimensional time and grow in complicated events so as to show his searching eyes and in-depth understanding of the life.