形式越界与意义指涉——论理查森的“反模仿”叙事诗学

Formalist Transgressions and Ideological Referents: On Brian Richardson’s Anti-Mimetic Narrative Poetics

理查森把超越"模仿"规约的叙事实践界定为"反模仿叙事",并提出建构"反模仿"叙事诗学,以增补现有的叙事理论。反模仿叙事作为一种"形式越界"不只是一种纯粹的形式问题,它作为一种特殊的叙事形式与"意义指涉"之间存在关联。理查森的叙事诗学破除了将叙事研究仅仅停留在形式描述层面的禁锢,关注了叙事形式在意义生成层面的重要作用。此种研究思路进一步深化了将叙事形式研究与意义指涉研究相结合的批评路径,同时为形式批评和文化批评贡献了新颖视野。不过,理查森只是较为粗略地挪用"模仿"的表层含义,并未厘清该概念牵涉的一系列复杂问题,这使得他的叙事诗学在收获众多批评关注的同时也引发了不少争议,其理论合法性备受质疑。

Brian Richardson defines anti-mimetic narratives as narrative practices transcending mimetic conventions. He seeks to construct “anti-mimetic narrative poetics” by focusing on “anti-mimetic narratives” so as to complement existing narrative theory. Instead of simply taking anti-mimetic narratives as a kind of formalist aesthetics,Richardson also stresses the interconnectedness between anti-mimetic narratives and their ideological referents. Particularly,he tends to demonstrate how anti-mimetic narratives as formalist transgressions can influence their ideological representations. While capturing much critical attention,Richardson’s anti-mimetic narrative theory also provokes some debates about its legitimate status as an emerging narrative research paradigm.