复古未来主义与蒸汽朋克:《差分机》中的后现代主义戏仿

Retrofuturism and Steampunk:The Postmodernist Parodyin Gibson and Sterling's The Difference Machine(1990)

近年来,以《差分机》为代表的蒸汽朋克作品正取得越来越高的关注度。受益于其独特的“复古未来主义”叙事方式,《差分机》塑造了一个维多利亚时代与信息时代相融合的虚构世界,实现了对19世纪诸多历史事件的再现,比如抵抗科技霸权的卢德运动以及学术界对均变论和灾变论的辩论。在“复古”与“未来”的双重编码过程中,蒸汽朋克对维多利亚历史的重新演绎体现出强烈的后现代隐喻,反映了琳达·哈琴眼中后现代“戏仿”以及其中所蕴含的丰富历史性与政治性。同时,《差分机》中的“时代错置”还反思了当下社会中科技对社会话语的全方位介入和渗透,表现了作者对受信息技术加持所产生的“符号化”社会的批判性思考。

Steampunk novels marked by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's The Difference Engine have been attracting noticeable public attention inrecent decades.Standing out with its"Retro-futuristic"narratology,The Difference Engine manages to crcatc a hybrid fictionality blendingthe Victorian history and the current age of information and theInternet,where a series of historical events in the 19 century arerepresented in retrospect,especially the technophobic Ludldisn and theacademic debate between Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism.During the"double-coding"process of"retro"and"future",steampunknovels are endowed with postmodlernist metaphors,echoing LindaHutcheon's parodic historicity and politics.Meanwhile,the anachronismin The Difference Engine points out the potcntial dangers of moderntechnology's whole-scale penetration into the social discourse,providinga concerning thought against the postmodern society occupied withnumbers and sinulacra.