战争创伤及其艺术再现问题——论奥布莱恩的小说《他们背负着的东西》

＂越战＂是美国叙事作品的热门题材,然而,这些作品常常因其真实的模仿和娴熟的处理所带来的审美快感而遭到人们的质疑。显然,对这类事件的再现背负着沉重的伦理意义。本文以美国当代小说家提姆·奥布莱恩的《他们背负着的东西》为切入口,深入探讨＂越战＂小说的再现手段与伦理意义之间的关系。通过诉诸创伤理论,本文认为,奥布莱恩通过运用各种后现代叙事手段深刻刻画了＂越战＂对参战士兵造成的创伤。但与其说奥布莱恩是在告诉读者＂越战＂的真相,或者是在向读者诉说痛苦的创伤体验,毋宁说他是在通过反复讨论如何讲述战争故事的方式竭力将书写创伤体验的困难传递给读者,要求读者聆听叙述者内心的苦痛,聆听他们是如何竭力摆脱战争创伤阴影的。

The Vietnam War has always been a popular subject matter for American narratives,yet it is controversial among readers because of the pleasures produced by the true-to-life portraitures in such works. No doubt,the representations of such events imply great ethical consequences. This article delves into the relations between the ethical meanings and fictional representations of the Vietnam War through a deep analysis of Tim O＇Brien＇s ThingsThey Carried. By resorting to contemporary trauma theories,this article analyses the various postmodern narrative modes adopted by O＇Brien to depict the great traumas produced by the Vietnam War onto the soldiers. This article tries to prove that,rather than narrating the true stories of the War,or recounting the painful traumatic experiences,O＇Brien is actually trying to convey to the reader the great difficulties of writing about trauma,and thus demand the reader to listen to the great pains of the narrators and the ways in which they attempt to break away from the shadows of the War.