自我消解的空洞——评华盛顿·欧文的小说《睡谷的传说》

A Self-Dissolving Hollow: Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

《睡谷的传说》是美国短篇小说的经典。虽然它创作于19世纪初,文本内部却孕育着20世纪后现代小说特有的解构特征。作者欧文以超前于他的时代的艺术直觉,通过对小说桃花源式的乌托邦主题、哥特式风格以及叙述真实性等所进行的消解,留给我们一个"亦此亦彼,非此非彼"的文本世界。

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of the masterpieces in American literature. Though it was written in the early nineteenth century, because of its deconstructive stance, it bears great similarity to the twentieth century postmodern fiction. In the short story, Washington Irving establishes as well as usurps the utopia theme and frontier motif, builds up as well as makes a subtle parody of the gothic style. In addition, he even employs various narrative techniques to expose the fabricating nature of the story. Due to these strategies, the short story becomes, as its title suggests, a 'hollow' where a coherent central meaning is absent. 