论艾·辛格小说的现实主义传统与创新

On Realism and Innovation in I. B. Singer’s Fiction

艾萨克·辛格的小说创作艺术手法丰富多彩、五光十色。从总体上看,辛格是一位传统的现实主义作家。他在很大程度上受到19世纪批判现实主义作家的影响,但他那种根植于犹太文化之中的叙述艺术是独具一格的。他的小说中含有一种深深积淀在犹太文化传统中的东西,表现出一种强烈的民族文化身份意识。这些东西不仅能激发犹太民族读者的心灵感应,而且可以在世界上许多其他民族读者的意识中引起反响与共鸣。辛格的小说清晰地反映出一个民族在自身文化传统逐渐失去并被另一种文化传统替代时所具有的衰落感和内在矛盾感。他运用全景式现实主义白描手法和充满激情的叙事艺术,力图表现犹太人在处理犹太传统与现代西方文明之间的冲突时特有的强烈的情感矛盾和思想斗争。他的这种独特的小说写实艺术使他的许多作品看似平实、简单,但读后却回味无穷。这也是他对20世纪美国现实主义文学的重要贡献之一。本文拟从传统与创新、讲故事的技艺、结构与人物几方面论述其小说的现实主义写实特色。

Isaac B.Singer’s fiction is rich and colorful in its writing style and technique.Generally,Singer is a realist writer.He was influenced to a great extent by the critical realist writers in the 19 th century,but his narrative art,rooted in Jewish culture,is unique and distinctive.His fiction contains something deeply rooted in the Jewish cultural tradition,showing a strong sense of national cultural identity.These things can not only stimulate the empathy of Jewish readers,but also arouse the echo and resonance in the consciousness of many readers of other nations in the world.Singer’s fiction clearly reflects a nation’s sense of decline and inner conflict when its own cultural tradition is gradually lost and replaced by another cultural tradition.With his panoramic description of realism and passionate narrative art,Singer tries to show the strong emotional contradiction and ideological struggle of Jews in dealing with the conflict between Jewish tradition and modern Western civilization.His unique,realistic art of fiction makes many of his works seem plain and simple,but after reading,they have a long"aftertaste."This is one of his important contributions to American realist literature in the 20 th century.This paper discusses the realist features of his fiction from the aspects of tradition and innovation,storytelling skill,structure,and characterization.