论《死在午后》的斗牛叙事及其对悲剧诗学的阐释

Death in the Afternoon: Bullfight as Narrative and Its Interpretation of Tragedy Poetics

非虚构作品《死在午后》在近百年的海明威批评史中一直遭受冷遇。在为数不多的评论中,评论家又常常采用小说的标准对其做出不甚合理的批判。在这部作品中,海明威把"斗牛"作为内在叙事动力,紧紧围绕"我"对斗牛的不同看法和"我"对观众的建议推动整个情节的发展;同时,通过并置"斗牛"与"创作"发表了许多关于文艺的观点。在把"斗牛"作为叙事动力的过程中,海明威还匠心独具地将"斗牛"与雕塑和悲剧等艺术进行类比。他不仅认为斗牛是悲剧,而且把整个斗牛过程看作一出包含三幕的悲剧。《死在午后》对斗牛士、公牛以及斗牛过程等的叙述与《诗学》中悲剧的相关要素密切关联,可以视为一部对悲剧诗学做出深度阐释的典范之作。

Hemingway’s non-fiction Death in the Afternoon has been consistently neglected over the past decades. Though some critics have reviewed the book, they reductively treat it as a novel. Taking bullfighting as the driving force of narrative, Hemingway develops the plot by showing his different perspectives of bullfight and his suggestions for the bullfighting spectators. In the meantime, he expresses his view on art by juxtaposing bullfight and artistic creation. In this process, Hemingway also artistically makes the comparison between bullfight and the art of sculpture and tragedy. He not only views bullfight as tragedy but treats the whole process of bullfighting as a three-act tragedy. The narrative of bullfighters, bulls and the process of bullfighting in Death in the Afternoon are closely connected with the elements of tragedy in Aristotle’s Poetics. In this sense, the book can be seen as an in-depth interpretation of tragedy poetics.