朱利安•巴恩斯《地铁延伸之处》中的动态主体性构建

Construction of Dynamic Subjectivity in Julian Barnes’s Metroland

较之于《福楼拜的鹦鹉》,《十卷半世界史》及《终结的感觉》这几部扛鼎之作,英国当代著名小说家朱利安•巴恩斯的处女作《地铁延伸之处》显然未受到批评界应有的重视。其实,该小说蕴藏的丰富主题不断显现于他日后的作品中。本文从分析主人公克里斯和托尼的主体性构建入手,着重探讨语言、书籍、他者、社会文化这些外在于他们的因素如何动态地塑造了克里斯和托尼的主体性,进而阐释巴恩斯对人类生存状态的客观评估。小说表现了在不断变化的外在因素影响下,人类的主体性并非某种能掌握在个体手中的超然,固定、本质的东西,而是成为了外界力量支配和控制的他者,流动不居、动态发展。

Compared with Flaubert’s Parrot, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters and A Sense of Ending, contemporary British novelist Julian Barnes’s debut novel Metroland has obviously received little critical attention. As a matter of fact, the novel’s abundant themes recur in his later works. This paper, by analyzing the construction of subjectivity of Metroland’s two protagonists Chris and Toni, intends to discuss how external factors like language, books, the other and social culture dynamically construct Chris and Toni’s subjectivity, which can then unveil Barnes’s objective assessment of the human condition. The paper argues that influenced by the ever-changing external factors, human subjectivity, instead of being something transcendent, fixed and essential controlled by the individuals, is actually fluid and dynamic, possessed by external forces.