彼得·阿克罗伊德小说《伦敦烈火》的“地域之令”与监狱书写

The“Territorial Imperative”and the Prison Writing in Peter Ackroyd's Novel The Great Fire of London

彼得·阿克罗伊德作为当代伦敦心理地理学复兴运动的主要推动者,在小说处女作《伦敦烈火》中将其玄秘主义“地域之令”的哲学理念与监狱书写深度融合,伦敦社会形形色色人物的行为和命运无不受制于“地域之令”的宰制。小说中指涉的狄更斯小说《小杜丽》同一场景马夏尔西监狱被赋予了新的意涵,是揭秘伦敦城市空间历史书写和文化身份的核心文化代码,构成了其心理地理学主题小说的空间叙事形态。在小说中,监狱成为建构英国文化共同体的核心空间形象:首先,监狱是召唤伦敦书写的回声母题;其次,监狱是小说的心理地理空间主体;再次,监狱是伦敦文化与社会衰落的情感地理转喻,表明历史无法逾越,从未终结。可见,小说中监狱具有作为互文写作隐喻主题和作为无法逃避的历史影响隐喻的两层玄秘含义,它是作者试图倡导复兴的英国文化共同体的核心文学母题。

As a major facilitator of the contemporary psychogeography renaissance of London,Peter Ackroyd deeply integrates the prison narrative with his occult notion of territorial imperative in his debut novel,The Great Fire of London.The behavior and destiny of all the characters from all walks of life in the London society are all subject to the dominance of“territorial imperative.”In Ackroyd's novel,the reference to the Marshalsea prison in Dickens'Little Dorrit takes on a new implication,namely,a cultural core code that exposes the historical narrative and cultural identity of the urban space in London,and constructs the spatial narrative pattern for his psychogeographically concerned novel.Also,the prison becomes a primary spatial image in the revival of the British cultural community:first,it is a recalling motif of London writing tradition;second,it is the subject of the psychogeographical space in the novel;third,it is an emotional and geographical trope of the cultural and social decline in London.It thus proves that history is insurmountable and it has never ended.So the prison carries two layers of mysterious connotation in the novel:as an image of the inter-textual theme of free writing,and as a metaphorical image of the unavoidable historical impact.It is the principal motif by which Ackroyd explores to revive the British cultural community.