班维尔小说《海》中的想象、认知与存在

Imagination,Cognition and Existence in John Banville's Ekphrastic Novel The Sea

《海》是爱尔兰作家约翰·班维尔著名的写画小说。小说中绘画作品与语言再现并置,形成了对过去不在场或不存在之物的想象性认识,暗示了对自我、死亡等存在问题的审视。神意象的视觉重构和语言再现带有明显的阶级表征,是主人公逃避死亡暗恐、重构自我的想象庇护所。对勃纳尔和梵高作品的写画性描述和阐释,暗含了对死亡的真切体验和本真的死的认知。有关勃纳尔绘画-风格和艺术流派的评述揭示了作家独特的创作观。班维尔借绘画和小说主题的对话,深度挖掘了'人类生存困境,彰显了班维尔作品的艺术张力以及作为当代作家对爱尔兰文学传统的超越和民族主义标签的淡化。

The Sea is John Banville's celebrated ekphrastic novel.Verbal representations of visual arts in the novel are images of absent or non-existent objects of time past,constructed through imaginative power.Through these images,analogues of imagined objects,the book explores the nature of existence and death.The protagonist derives temporary comfort and a sense of self by visualizing and imaginatively representing images of gods,symbols of social status.When imaginative intention is projected upon the paintings of Bonnard and Van Gogh,the ontological meaning of death is conveyed,namely being-toward-death and holding death as truth.Comments on Bonnard's artistic style reflect Banville’s own artistic aesthetic.Integrating visual arts into his novel’s concerns,Banville extends the use of ekphrasis to explore the question of being in the world,indicating Banville's transcendence of the Irish literary tradition and his challenge to national labelling of Irish writers.