《四个灵魂》中的恶作剧者叙述

The Trickster Narrative in Four Souls

本文从新历史主义的视角,分析厄德里克在《四个灵魂》中的叙述方式和意义,并从叙述的历史性指涉和解构性文本两个角度展示作品中的反抗性叙述。通过对核心叙述者恶作剧者的分析,本文认为恶作剧者不仅是作品中的反抗性人物,而且以其解构特质融入到文本的叙述层面,对历史性进行重构,构建了具有本土族裔特色的恶作剧者话语。它具有鲜明的新历史主义特征,一方面通过结构层面的多元叙述视角抵制白人主流同质化的叙述权威;另一方面通过语言内部的自我消解来揭示语言的内在肌理及其与历史的互动关系,并最终实现对历史本质的真实还原。厄德里克也如恶作剧者一般,解构的同时也在建构,以流动的文本性来尝试创建具有本土传统特色的文本和历史的关联。

In light of the approach of New Historicism, this essay examines the strategy of counter-narrative and its functions of historical reference and of deconstructive textuality in Four Souls by Louise Erdrich. Through analyzing the core narrator of trickster, the essay argues that the trickster not only serves as a character in the novel, but also participates in the narrative to reconstruct history and furthermore, helps build up a trickster narrative of native tribalism. The trickster narrative is featured with the strong interests of New Historicism. The multi-perceptivity within the narrative structure, on the one hand, resists the essentialism of the narrative dominated by the white. On the other hand, it reveals the inner mechanism of the language and its function in constructing history. Louise Erdrich, like the trickster, in the spirit of deconstruction, redefines the connection between text and history in Native American tradition.