美国内战前历史的文学书写——麦尔维尔《皮埃尔,或含混》中的“含混”叙事

On the “Ambiguous” Narrative in Melville’s Pierre,or the Ambiguities

麦尔维尔在《皮埃尔,或含混》中聚焦于含混主题,通过文本虚构与历史叙事的交错融会,有差异地再现了美国内战前的历史。小说的故事线沿着战前阶级对立和党派纷争的政局推进,并借助矛盾、并置及断裂的含混性叙事手法再现并重塑了这段历史,解构了北方/南方,民主/封建制度整齐划一式的对立;同时,小说以含混的故事想象隐喻了奴隶制问题,融入了作家对废奴运动困境之反思和探索;小说对主人公皮埃尔含混生存模式的刻画蕴涵了“颠覆”与“含纳”之权力运作模式的悖论,内嵌着麦氏对政治运作与权力话语之复杂关系的诘问。

Melville represents the history of the antebellum America in a different light by focusing on“the Ambiguities”and mingling his fictional narrative with the historical narrative in Pierre,or the Ambiguities.The storyline advances along the political situation of antebellum class opposition and party disputes,and reproduces and reshapes this history by means of paradox,juxtaposition and disruptive narrative techniques,deconstructing the neat and symmetrical North/South,the democratic/feudal system;through an ambiguous textual metaphor,Pierre reexamines slavery issues by integrating the writer’s exploration and reflection into the dilemma of the anti-slavery movement;the ambiguous life mode of the protagonist Pierre embodies the power operational paradox:“Subversion”and“Containment”,inscribing Melville’s questioning of the complex relationship between political operation and power discourse.