同质见证与异质记忆:美国“9·11”小说的两次“言说”

Homogeneous Witness and Heterogeneous Memory:The Two Narrative Discourses in American 9/11 Novels

2001年以降,以想象、再现“9·11”恐怖袭击事件为题材的美国“9·11”小说层出不穷。美国“9·11”小说以不断发展的虚构方式,对这一历史事件进行想象性“言说”:美国“9·11”小说的初次“言说”主要呈现出言说对象、言说内容、言说模式相对单一的同质化特征,再次“言说”则选取异视角观察言说对象、呈现差异化言说内容、注重言说模式多样性等异质化特征。就两次“言说”嬗变的效用来看,以见证为主要功能的初次“言说”呼应了记录创伤危机、谴责恐怖主义的现实主义叙事诉求,而以记忆为书写框架的再次“言说”重在思索“求同存异”的后“9·11”时代文学意义。

Since 2001,the American 9/11 novels that are focused on imagining and re-presenting the 9/11 terrorist attacks as the theme have appeared one after another.These novels seem to have delivered,in an ever-developing pattern,a sort of imaginary“narrative discourses”on this historical event.The first one mainly shows some relatively homogeneous features,such as the target,content,and mode of the discourse,but the second one dwells on some heterogeneous features,adopting a different perspective in observing the target,diversifying the content,and emphasizing the variation of the mode.Judging from the effect of the changes between the two“narrative discourses,”we may conclude that the initial“discourse,”which functions mostly as a way of witnessing,responds to the need for realistic narratives to document the traumatic crisis and condemn terrorism,whereas the second“discourse,”which relies on memory as the writing frame,puts extra emphasis on reflecting on the significance of“seeking common ground while shelving differences”in the post-9/11 literature.