摘要
蒸汽朋克以19世纪的英美为时代背景,假想某些重大科技(尤其是与蒸汽相关的技术)提前问世并主导社会生活、改变历史走向的或然场景。作为这一文类的奠基之作,小说《差分机》以计算机技术提早一个世纪问世的维多利亚时代的伦敦为背景,描写了几个主人公卷入一套神秘的打孔卡片的故事,作品体现出作者对人类历史的丰富想象和深入思考。本文从历史真实性、碎片化叙述、对现实的指涉、历史发展规律四个角度入手,对《差分机》进行系统解读,相关内容包括蒸汽朋克中的真假虚实、混杂而矛盾的历史碎片、后福特主义的社会寓言、历史的偶然性与随机性,旨在通过这一典型案例分析,深入把握蒸汽朋克的写作特点与历史观念。
Set in the 19th century Britain or America,Steampunk usually speculates on the what-if scenarios in which some revolutionary technology,often steamrelated,came out ahead of time,and then dominated social life and even altered the course of human history.As a book that helped establish the genre of Steampunk,The Difference Engine is set in Victorian London where computer technology was born one century earlier than actual history.The novel depicts how the protagonists got involved in a mysterious set of punched cards;it also embodies its authors’ rich imagination and deep contemplation of human history.This paper is a systematic analysis of The Difference Engine,from the perspectives of historical authenticity,fragmentary narration,reference to reality,and laws of historical development.Its contents include true and false history in Steampunk,hybrid and contradictory historical fragments,social fable of post-Fordism,and historical contingency and randomness.Through such a case study,the paper aims to achieve a deep understanding of Steampunk’s writing features and historical outlook.
出处
《英美文学研究论丛》
2020年第1期140-150,共11页
English and American Literary Studies
基金
国家社科基金一般项目“当代美国或然历史小说研究(1945—2015)”(17BWW083)的阶段性成果。
