《亚瑟与乔治》的叙事艺术

Narrative art in Arthur and George

在《亚瑟与乔治》中,朱利安·巴恩斯一改先前大胆的后现代形式实验,主要通过交替的人物视角、直接引语与自由间接引语等凸显人物意识的话语再现形式,对历史人物和事件展开细致入微的写实描写。然而,一改行文中叙事策略所塑造的写实效果,巴恩斯以开放式结尾这一后现代消解叙事实验策略赋予小说叙事以写实与非写实的悖论。尽管如此,作者未从本质上改变叙事产生的真实性效果,实现了对亚瑟与乔治两位历史人物和著名历史事件"大沃利"伤马案的真实再现。这拓展了传统历史小说,并挑战了后现代历史极端相对论,即历史的不确定性。

In Arthur and George,Julian Barnes changes the previous bold postmodern experimentation.Mainly through alternating perspectives of characters and two strategies of discourse representation to foreground characters’consciousness—direct speech and free indirect speech,he realizes detailed realistic description of historical persons and events.However,via open ending,a postmodern experimental strategy of denarration,Barnes endows the novel with such a narrative paradox between realism and anti-realism.Nevertheless,Barnes essentially does not alter the verisimilitude of the novel,but realizes the true representation of Arthur and George,the two historical persons,and the well-known historical event of"Great Wyrley"animals mutilation.By thus doing,he not only develops the traditional historical novel,but also challenges the postmodern historical relativism,namely the uncertainty of history.