推理小说中的“搭档”型人物及其叙事功能

“The Partner”Characters and Their Functions in Mystery Novels

在以讲述神秘事件为主题的推理类叙事作品中,“侦探”加“助手”的人物模式堪称经典。这种“搭档”型的人物结构从爱伦·坡笔下诞生,在后续的推理小说中发展成熟。运用结构主义和形式主义的功能性人物观分析作品,可以看到推理小说从诞生之初就为服务叙事而进行着分工明确的人物功能预设,并在传播与发展中产生了功能迁移。在这类以事件为中心的作品中,“侦探”和“助手”这对搭档具备着符号性的意义。“侦探”和“助手”作为行动者服务于事件的发展,作为作者设置的“隐藏的叙述者”而存在。相较于人们一见即知的符号性特征,他们的个性特征处于次要地位。

“The detective”and“assistant”is a classic character model in the mystery novels with the theme of telling mysterious events.This kind of character setting originated from Allan Poe and has been developed and matured in the following detective novels and reasoning novels.We can discover the semiotic significance of“detective”and“assistant”in this kind of event centered fictions by using structuralism and Formalism's views of functional characters.“The detective”and“assistant”serve the development of events as actors and exist as“hidden narrators”set by the author.Compared with the well-known symbolic characteristics,their personality characteristics are in a secondary position.