澳大利亚小说家的“理论”之争

The Theory Debates among Australian Novelists

“理论”的兴起与消退是20世纪70年代之后澳大利亚文坛和批评界的一件大事,围绕“理论”引发的论争吸引了众多批评家的关注,也吸引了不少作家参与其中。20世纪八九十年代,先后有多位澳大利亚作家通过自己的创作表达了他们对于“理论”的态度。戴维·艾兰德在他的小说《女人城》中刻画了一个完全脱离男性的女性世界,针对激进女权运动所暴露出来的问题进行了揶揄;布莱恩·卡斯特罗的小说《双狼》通过重述“狼人”的故事将弗洛伊德塑造成招摇撞骗的江湖术士,对精神分析理论进行了无情的嘲弄;戴维·福斯特的小说《林中空地》通过呈现一个后现代小说创作个案,对罗兰·巴特的后结构主义“作者之死”进行了批驳。这些作家的出身与背景不尽相同,但他们在对待“理论”的态度上与固守传统价值的批评家高度一致。他们用文学的方式针对学院派“理论”进行讽刺、批判和打击,加速了“理论”在澳大利亚的消亡。

The rise and fall of Theory after the 1970s represented an epochal moment in the history of Australian literature and literary studies.The debates drew in and divided numerous critics and they also sucked in some of the country's most respected serious writers,some of whom,in the last two decades of the 20th century,communicated their stand in the arguments through their literary writings.David Ireland wrote City of Women to ridicule the radical separatism of feminist(especially lesbian)women;Brian Castro's Double Wolf targeted for its merciless allegations and criticism Sigmund Freud and his psychoanalysis;David Foster's The Glade within the Grove presented a sharp repudiation of Roland Barthes'poststructuralist ideas such as“the death of the author”through the depiction of a pretentious postmodern writer.Despite their differences in terms of family and cultural background,they were curiously agreed in their dislike of Theory and in their posing as defenders of traditional Australian and humanist values.They no doubt contributed to the demise of Theory in Australia.