《亡父》中的后现代崇高美学特质

Aesthetic Characteristics of Postmodern Sublime in The Dead Father

以法国哲学家让-弗朗索瓦·利奥塔的后现代崇高美学理论,解读美国作家唐纳德·巴塞尔姆的小说《亡父》,发现该小说文本从不确定性、"非人"和不可呈现之物三方面再现了后现代崇高美学特质。亡父"歧论"式存在状态、前后不一致的行文以及亡父否定线性时间的年龄表征了不确定性,并终指向后现代崇高的虚无感。技术与理性操控造成的"非人"状态导致人情感衰退,使读者在震惊之余产生了意在摆脱技术和物质宰制的后现代崇高感。消解亡父无处不在的影响力和其引发他人恐惧感的能力,是对不可呈现之物的消极呈现,后现代崇高由此得以呈现。

Analyzing The Dead Father,a novel written by American Writer Donald Barthelme,from the perspective of the Postmodern Sublime aesthetics advocated by the French philosopher Jean-Fran ois Lyotard,the article points out that the text of the novel represents the aesthetic characteristics of the postmodern sublime in three aspects:indeterminacy,“the inhumain”and the unpresentable.Dead Father’s being in the state of“differend”,the inconsistence and discordance between lines in the text,and Dead Father’s repudiated age with the negation of the linear time,are the representations of indeterminacy,which triggers the awareness of nihility that eventually directs at the postmodern sublime.“The inhumain”under the control of the scientific and technological ration leads to the waning of affect of human beings,while the readers’contemplation of“the inhumain”producing the sentiment of the postmodern sublimity,which extricates themselves from the technical and material control.The dissolution of the ubiquitous influence of Dead Father and his ability to arouse fear is the negative presentation of the unpresentable,therefore,through the negative presentation,the postmodern sublime is presented.