自然万物的叙事力——论瑞克·巴斯的复魅叙事

Narrative Agency of Nonhuman Nature:A Study of Rick Bass’s Narratives of Re-enchantment

瑞克·巴斯频繁讲述人在荒野体验到的神奇。其实巴斯并非魔幻现实主义作家,神奇也不仅指向自然的野性,它直指自然万物的强大叙事力。本文首先理清物质生态批评核心概念“物质叙事力”的内涵,继而指出巴斯对自然万物的叙事力的阐发,并认为他在荒野亲历的神奇事件以及小说人物迷魅于自然万物的语言、惊叹于动物的理解力与跨越广阔空间的感知力等,均展示了自然的表述行为和重新使人魅惑的主体性。这些复魅叙事凸显人对物之生命力的重新感知和物质与话语的密不可分,表明叙事是人与物共同创建,呼应了物质生态批评赋予叙事的本体论意义,激发我们在实践活动中的伦理反思。

Rick Bass frequently depicts human experience of wonder in the wilderness.Bass is not a magical realist,nor does wonder merely refer to the wildness of nature.More importantly,wonder means the powerful narrative agency of nonhuman nature.This paper sets out to clarify the term“narrative agency of matter,”the key concept of material ecocriticism,and to draw attention to Bass’s unique articulation of the narrative agency of nonhuman nature.It argues that Bass’s recordings of his sensorial perceptions of wonder in the wilderness,together with his accounts of characters being enchanted by languages of nonhuman nature and being amazed by animals’intelligibility and extrasensory perception,signify both the performativity and the re-enchanting process of nonhuman nature.Bass’s narratives of re-enchantment accentuate human perceptions of matter’s vitality and the inseparability of matter and discourse,and convincingly demonstrate that narratives are co-created by humans and nonhuman nature,thus corresponding to the ontological meaning of narrative designated by material ecocriticism and encouraging ethical refections on our actions.