20世纪形式批评与短篇小说

Twentieth Century Formalist Criticism and Short Fiction

从俄国形式主义和法国结构主义理论家对几部欧美经典短篇小说的解读中不难看出,在对短篇小说的态度上,20世纪形式批评与非形式批评并无二致。当代美国短篇小说样式批评崛起于形式批评走向没落的20世纪70年代这一事实表明,短篇小说长期遭受冷遇的原因不在于批评界缺乏形式批评的理论武装,近30年中的短篇小说样式理论发展在很大程度上得益于时代潮流的变迁。

Critical indifference to short fiction has been attributed to a general lack of attention to the intrinsic study of literature prior to the advent of 20th century formalist criticism. This article raises doubts about such an explanation by examining the ways in which one Russian formalist and two French structuralists handle short stories in their formal analysis. Comparing their approach with that of two extrinsic theorists (Freud and Lacan), it argues that early 20th century formalist criticism remained largely as apathetic towards the study of short fiction as a modern literary genre as nonformalist criticism. 