《斩首之邀》:真伪狂欢之辩

Invitation to a Beheading——The Debate of the True and False Carnival Dimensions

《斩首之邀》是纳博科夫本人"评价最高的作品"。小说展现了虚妄的、无人性的"透明人"群体之伪狂欢表象与真实的、有人性的"不透明人"辛辛纳特斯之真狂欢意识的对峙,进而拓展为荒诞、污浊、残忍、庸俗的此岸世界与合理、清澈、温柔、纯净的彼岸世界的对立,并随着主人公死刑的执行,生与死、灵与肉、恐惧与欢乐、此世与彼岸之间的界限消弭,被禁锢的狂欢精神去伪存真,挣脱牢笼,回归彼岸。纳博科夫借由对人物与世界真伪狂欢性的表现,着力于对人类普遍情感的宣泄和生存状态的拷问,彰显出一种富有生命张力的狂欢化创作思维和尊重个性、差异性及多样性的人文情怀与世界感受。巴赫金的狂欢化理论从民间狂欢文化出发,深入发掘文学文本的精神价值,从文本内部进入文本外部更为广阔的文化和意识世界。这种从语言符号向文化符号延伸的敞开式思维方式,打破了对艺术文本的机械性、封闭性认识,有助于拓展《斩首之邀》和其他经典文学作品的无限可阐释空间。

Invitation to a Beheading is Nabokov's most highly rated work. This novel demonstrates the confrontation between false carnival appearance of delusive, inhuman "transparent" group and true carnival consciousness of real, human "nontransparent” Cincinnatus, and then expands into the opposition between absurd, grim, cruel and vulgar This world and reasonable, clear, gentle and pure Other world. The boundary between life and death, spirit and flesh, fear and joy, This world and Other world is eliminated with the execution of protagonist's death penalty;imprisoned carnival spirit sifts the true from the false, breaks free from the cage and returns to Other world. Through the expression of the characters' and the world's true and false carnival appearance, Nabokov focuses on human general emotion and living state, manifests intense carnival creative thinking and deep respect for individuality, difference and diversity as his humanistic concern and world feeling. From the perspective of folk carnival culture, Bakhtin's carnival theory deeply explores the spiritual value of literary texts, enters the wider cultural space and the conscious world outside the text. This open thinking mode of extending from linguistic symbols to cultural symbols overturns the mechanical and closed understanding of art texts and helps to expand the infinite interpretation space of Invitation to a Beheading and other classical literary works.