可能世界理论视野中的虚设历史叙事:以菲利普·迪克的小说《高堡奇人》为例

Counterfactual Historical Narratives in the Horizon of Possible Worlds Theory: A Case Study of Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle

虚设历史叙事虚设一段或多段与公共历史叙事相悖的平行叙事,形成具有本体混合性的“故事宇宙”,探索“历史若非如此,世界将会怎样”。当前虚设历史叙事的理论研究路径主要有两条,分别为分岔模式和融合模式。本文对这两条研究路径加以总结,以戴维·刘易斯的模态真实论为理论基础,提出虚设历史叙事研究的第三种模式——可能世界模式。该模式认为,虚设历史叙事创造出与真实世界具有本体对等性的可能世界,在多个世界的流动融合中,真实得到丰富和更新。本文总结虚设历史叙事的六个典型特征——本体混合性、结构共时性、边际弥散性、世界多元性、真实实践性、虚实互蕴含性,并以菲利普·迪克的小说《高堡奇人》为例,分析上述特征在叙事中的具体表现,探索虚设与真实之间相互渗透、相互依存、相互转化的内在机制和动态过程。

Counterfactual historical narrative is a genre in which multiple counterfactual histories are set in parallel to the dominant public history,with the aim of exploring“what the world would be like if it were not as it is now”.Currently,there are two theoretical approaches to the study of counterfactual historical narratives,namely,the branching model and the integration model.After evaluating these two models,the article proposes a third model for the study of counterfactual historical narrative—the possible worlds model,based on David Lewis’modal realism.The possible worlds model posits that counterfactual historical narratives produce one or more possible worlds with the same ontological status as the actual world.It suggests that what is perceived as reality involves a process of mutual flowing among these multiple worlds.The article summarizes six characteristic features of counterfactual historical narratives:ontological hybridity,synchronicity in narrative structure,dispersing boundaries,multiplicity of parallel worlds,reality in practice,and the immanence between the counterfactual and the actual.Finally,the article conducts a textual analysis of Philip K.Dick's The Man in the High Castle to exemplify these six features in the context of a specific work of science fiction.