笛福小说的内部研究和英国小说的起源

The Intrinsic Study of Defoe’s Novels and the Origins of the English Novel

国外学界对英国小说起源的研究主要包括两条路径:一是从小说的虚构性出发,研究小说中虚构和历史的对话,将小说看作是伪装成历史的虚构;二是从小说的新奇性出发,研究小说的叙事题材和形式。笛福是公认的英国小说之父,对其小说进行内部研究时便不可避免要将之置于英国小说起源的视域之中。因此,国外学界对笛福小说的内部研究也从虚构性和新奇性两个角度切入,探究其中存在的“决定性结构”。这些研究有助于我们重新思考笛福小说的意义,也让对小说这一文类有更加深刻的洞察。

There are two major approaches to studying the origins of the English novel in western academia.One is from the perspective of fictionality,by which scholars have studied the conversation between history and fictiousness of the novel,regarding the novel as a fiction which disguises itself as history.The other is from novelty,focusing on the narrative content and form of the novel.Given Defoe as the father of the English novel,the intrinsic study of his novels should inevitably be undertaken with the origins of the English novel in mind.Western scholars therefore have probed into Defoe’s novels by these two approaches,i.e.fictionality and novelty,and then have explored the“structure of determination”in his novels.These studies will be helpful for us to reconsider the meaning of Defoe’s novels and get insight into the novel as a genre.