纳博科夫《微暗的火》的后现代主义解读.pdf

宁夏大学 硕士学位论文 纳博科夫微暗的火的后现代主义解读 姓名：刘洋 申请学位级别：硕士 专业：英语语言文学 指导教师：周玉忠;张燕萍 2011-03 iv 摘摘 要要 弗拉基米尔纳博科夫是美国当代文学史上一位伟大的俄裔作家，他创作了许多 全新的作品，并对俄国和美国的现代主义和后现代主义文学产生了重要影响。 微暗 的火出版于 1962 年，被认为是一部具有实验性的后现代主义小说文本。但是，评 论界对于纳博科夫的研究主要集中在他的成名作洛丽塔上，而对微暗的火的 研究不够系统、深刻。对微暗的火的已有研究主要集中在其复杂的小说内容，精 美的小说结构和部分后现代主义特色等方面。鉴于此，本论文运用哈桑的后现代主义 理论对微暗的火进行了后现代主义的解读，着重分析了微暗的火中的后现代 主义写作策略的运用及其体现出的后现代主义艺术特色。 本篇论文共分为五章。第一章是引言，主要介绍了纳博科夫的生平和创作贡献， 以及微暗的火的故事梗概。第二章是文献回顾，主要回顾了国内外批评家对微 暗的火的研究概况，分析并说明了本论文的研究意义。第三章是理论简介，概括了 哈桑的后现代主义理论，并阐述了后现代主义的产生背景、概念及其特征。第四章是 论文的主体部分。本章主要分析了纳博科夫在微暗的火中所运用的后现代主义写 作策略，共有互文、拼贴、游戏策略、开放式结构和中国套盒式结构五个部分，及其 各自体现出的后现代主义特色。第一部分分析了文本内部和外部的互文现象。纳博科 夫戏仿了自己对普希金尤金奥涅金的译本、莎士比亚的雅典的泰门和自己 的作品洛丽塔 。同时，谢德的诗歌和金波特的评论也构成了文本内部的互文结构。 互文策略表现了后现代主义的杂合性。第二部分分析了拼贴，主要介绍了不同文体、 字体、语言和叙述方式构成的拼贴，体现了后现代主义的碎片性。第三部分分析了小 说中的游戏策略，包括镜像游戏和文字游戏。这些游戏增加了文本的不确定性和复杂 性。第四部分分析了小说中的开放式结构。这部分主要分析了 y 结构和文本内部作 者的多重可能性，体现了文本的不确定性，并赋予读者对文本的再创造性。第五部分 体现了文本中的中国套盒式的结构。 这种故事中套故事的结构给读者展示了大量的信 息和碎片式的故事情节。第五章是结论。通过上述分析，论文的结论是：纳博科夫的 小说微暗的火借助上述五种后现代主义写作策略实现了哈桑所提出的后现代主义 的不确定性、碎片性和杂合性三大后现代主义特征，同时展示了微暗的火的多重 v 主题。 关键词关键词： 纳博科夫； 微暗的火 ；后现代主义写作策略；后现代主义特征 ii abstract vladimir nabokov, one of the greatest russian american masters in contemporary american literature, has created a variety of brand-new works and exerted a profound influence on modernist and postmodernist literature in both russia and america. nabokovs pale fire has been labeled as one of the experimental postmodernist fiction since it was published in 1962. however, researches on nabokov mainly focus on his fame-setting fiction lolita. researches on pale fire are not very systemic and thorough, mainly focusing on its complicated content, delicate structure, some postmodernist features and some other aspects. thus, the thesis writer intends to use hassans postmodernist theory to analyze postmodernist writing strategies and present postmodernist features in nabokovs pale fire. the thesis comprises five chapters. chapter one is an introduction of the thesis, introducing nabokovs life and literary achievements and his masterpiece pale fire. chapter two is the literature review, examining the foreign and domestic researches on pale fire and showing the significance of this thesis. chapter three is the brief introduction to hassans postmodernist theory and postmodernist features applied in this thesis. this chapter mainly focuses on the background, definition and distinct features of postmodernism. chapter four is the body of this thesis, mainly analyzing the postmodernist writing strategies employed by nabokov in pale fire, including intertextuality, collage, games, open structure and the chinese-box structure, and the postmodernist features they bring. this chapter contains five parts. the first part is the analysis of intertextuality both outside the context and inside the context. outside the fiction pale fire, nabokov parodies the pushkins eugene onegin, shakespeares timon of athens and his own fiction lolita. inside pale fire, shades poem and kinbotes commentary form the intertextual structure. the employment of intertxtuality achieves the postmodernist feature of hybridization. the second part covers the collage. nabokov adopts collage in the aspects of structure, printing forms, languages and narrative iii structure. the collage in the fiction exposes the postmodernist feature of fragmentation. the third part makes an analysis of games the novel presents, including mirroring game and various word games. these games make the fiction indeterminate and complex. the fourth part presents the open structure in pale fire, which is manifested through y structure and open internal authorship. the open structure leads to indeterminacies in the fiction and provides readers opportunities to participate in the literary recreation. the fifth part explains the chinese-box structure adopted by nabokov in pale fire. the story-within-the-story structure presents the overloaded information and the postmodernist feature of fragmentation. chapter five is the conclusion. the thesis arrives to the conclusion that nabokovs pale fire employs obvious postmodernist writing strategies such as intertextuality, collage, games, open structure and the chinese-box structure, to achieve postmodernist features of indeterminacies, fragmentation and hybridization proposed by hassan and reveal the multiple themes in pale fire. key words: nabokov, pale fire, postmodernist writing strategies, postmodernist features vi list of figures figure 1 differences between modernism and postmodernism figure 2 the circular relationship among the characters in pale fire figure 3 the y structure in pale fire figure 4 the chinese-box structure in pale fire 独 创 性 声 明 本人声明所呈交的论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成 果。尽我所知，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包含其他人已经发 表或撰写过的研究成果， 也不包含为获得宁夏大学或其它教育机构的学位或证书而使 用过的材料。 与我一同工作的同志对本研究所做的任何贡献均已在论文中作了明确的 说明并表示了谢意。 研究生签名： 时间： 年 月 日 关于论文使用授权的说明 本人完全了解宁夏大学有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，即：学校有权保留送交 论文的复印件和磁盘，允许论文被查阅和借阅，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等复制手 段保存、汇编学位论文。同意宁夏大学可以用不同方式在不同媒体上发表、传播学位 论文的全部或部分内容。 (保密的学位论文在解密后应遵守此协议保密的学位论文在解密后应遵守此协议) 研究生签名： 时间： 年 月 日 导师签名： 时间： 年 月 日 宁夏大学硕士学位论文 introduction 1 chapter 1 introduction of all the russian american writers in contemporary literary field, nabokov is considered as one of the greatest modernist and postmodernist masters, and regarded as the most distinguished and controversial figure. his unique and brand-new novels leave precious literary treasure and provide fresh paradigm for the contemporary literature. 1.1 introduction to vladimir nabokov vladimir nabokov (18991977), a distinguished multi-lingual russian american novelist, critic, translator and acknowledged lepidopterist in the 20th century, has exerted a profound influence on modernist and postmodernist literature in russia and america. nabokov had many achievements in various fields. as a professor and a scholar, he engaged in literature study and held his own unique and fresh opinions toward the canon. as a prolific writer, he published nine russian novels and nine english novels, hundreds of poems, dozens of short stories, dramas, translations, and criticisms. as a translator, he used exact literal translation and domestication. as a sportsman, he excelled in football, chess, boxing and fencing. as a lepidopterist, he devoted all his energy to the study and collection of butterflies and published scientific articles about butterflies. he discovered some new species and proposed a new way and a naming system to distinguish butterflies. closely examining nabokovs biography, his legendary life span can fall into four periods: russian period (18991919), european period (19191940), american period (19401959) and montreux period (19601977). the first period is russian period when nabokov was born in a wealthy aristocratic family in st. petersburg, russia, on april 23rd, 1899. nabokovs family members exerted significant influence on little nabokov. his father vladimir dmitrievich nabokov was a liberal lawyer, politician and journalist. his mother received high education, mastered several foreign languages, and was interested in poems, painting and music. nabokov inherited a strong working spirit and love for butterflies from his father, and inherited artistic disposition and spirituality from his mother. 宁夏大学硕士学位论文 introduction 2 uncle ruka who was fond of music and poems left him nice memories. the educational tradition in nabokovs family was handed down from the 19th century: talking about politics over the meals, discussing academic issues, hiring french, british, germany and russian tutors for children, and establishing private library. nabokov enjoyed exceptional advantages in such perfect conditions of learning. thus, nabokov could employ three languages freely, in his own words, “my head says english, my heart, russian, my ear, french” (nabokov, 1899, p. 49), and he could switch easily in the tri-dimension. in his childhood, he read poe, browning, keats, flaubert, chekhov, tolstoy, and other great masters of literature. the extensive reading in his ten to fifteen was much wider than any five-year period in his life. the extensive reading and profound knowledge accumulation help him expand his insight and lay a solid foundation for his later literary creation. due to the soviet revolution, nabokov and his family went into exile, through greece and france to britain. he began his migration period in western europe. they settled briefly in england, where vladimir enrolled in trinity college, cambridge and studied french and russian literature. he later drew on his cambridge experiences to write the novel glory. he followed his family and went to berlin after his graduation. there he began to be a professional writer under pseudonym syrin. in 1926，he published his first russian novel mashenka, which attracted great attention of russian migrants. in 1929, his work the defense began to be published in russian magazines and it explored the chess game and luzhins zeal and madness. his russian novel glory was finished in 1932, which narrates a story of an migr familys escape from russia, and the young mans disastrous return to his hometown russia after his education in england. nabokov then finished despair in 1936 and translated it into english in the following year. in 1936 invitation to a beheading came out and two years later his greatest russian novel the gift was finished. in 1938, he gained great fame by finishing his first english novel the real life of sebastian knight. at that time, nabokov was a definitely mature writer. during berlin period, nabokov experienced two important events in his life: his fathers death and meeting his wife vera. in 1922, nabokovs father was murdered by two 宁夏大学硕士学位论文 introduction 3 right-wing assassinators who intended to kill another politician. the elder nabokov leaped off the stage to save his friend, but was shot and died instantly. the fathers death greatly shocked nabokovs mental world and his fathers image appeared in his several works. nabokov met vera in 1925, and she became nabokovs good wife, stenographer, typer, editor, translator and driver. nabokov and his family fled to america and arrived in new york in 1940 before the fall of paris by hitler during the wwii. in america, he came to wellesley college in 1941 and offered courses in russian language. this position provided an income and free time to write creatively. invited by morris bishop, nabokov left wellesley in 1948 to teach russian and european literature at cornell university. in america, nabokov never stopped pursuing butterflies. every summer, nabokov and his wife undertook their butterfly-collection trips in western united states. during these trips, he was quite familiar with the road culture and motels, which laid a profound foundation to his work lolita. in america, he determined to switch from russian novel to english novel, which was in his own word “private tragedy” (nabokov, 1899, p. 15). he abandoned his natural language, his “rich, infinitely rich and docile russian tongue, for a second-rate brand of english” (nabokov, 1899, p. 15), and then joined the mainstream of american literature. in 1941, he published in america his first english novel the real life of sebastian knight. in 1955, his masterpiece lolita appeared which was refused by many publishers as a tabooed volume and later was published by putnam publisher in 1958. when lolita came out, it caused an enormous stir in critical circle. the simple novella pinn, together with lolita, brought worldwide fame and enormous income to nabokov. in 1959, he left america and returned to europe. the fourth period was also quite important to him, in which nabokov transferred from modernism to postmodernist exploration, such as pale fire (1962), ada (1969), bend sinister (1947) and transparent things (1972). besides novels, he also published poems album poems and problems (1970), and translated his early russian novels into english. whats more, he engaged in introducing russian masterpieces to the world. he spent 15 years on the translation of pushkins ougene onegin. finally, he died of severe bronchial 宁夏大学硕士学位论文 introduction 4 congestion on july 2nd in montreux. nabokovs uniqueness is acknowledged in the history of american literature. he is unique because of his special identity, his exile experience, his genius, his brand-new writing style, as well as the combination of scientific accuracy and artistic imagination in his writing. 1.2 introduction to pale fire published in 1962, pale fire was an earthshaking surprise for all critics and readers because of its unique form and intricate structure. owing to its unusual structure and intricate design, this novel was labeled as one of the antecedents to the postmodernist fiction and went further than many of its previous novels in innovation. pale fire saw nabokovs great exploration of transition from modernism to postmodernism. he shed off the traditional pattern of writing and modes of thinking. his fiction pale fire displays obvious postmodernist features like unreliable narrator and multiple themes, overlapping structure, intertextuality, and word games. boyd brian, nabokovs authoritative biographical author, held that pale fire was nabokovs most perfect novel. mary mccarthys once said, “pale fire is a jack-in-the-box, a faberge gem, a clockwork toy, a chess problem, an infernal machine, a trap to catch reviewers, a cat-and-mouse game, a do-it-yourself kitthis centaur-work of nabokovs, half-poem, half-prose, this merman of the deep, is a creature of perfect beauty, symmetry, strangeness, originality, and moral truth” (boyd, 1999, p. 3). pale fire consists of four parts: a 999-line of autobiographic poem by john shade, with foreword, commentary and index by the self-appointed editor kinbote, who added his life experiences into his commentary of shades poem after shade was murdered mistakenly by the insane gradus, who in kinbotes mind was an assassinator sent by the new rulers of zembla to kill kinbote, the exiled king. the first part is the foreword written by kinbote. it mainly covers the writing process and writing strategies of the poem, the friendship between kinbote and shade, the way kinbote got shades manuscript, the publication of the poem, and the suggested way to 宁夏大学硕士学位论文 introduction 5 read this book. kinbote and shade lived across a lane from each other in a fictitious small town called new wye, appalachia, from february to july, 1959. kinbote moved into goldsworthian chateau and lived next to the celebrated american poet shade, so he found various ways to get to know shade. whats more, he developed a strange habit of peeping through one of his windows to see what shade does day and night. kinbote thought he developed a smooth friendship with shade, and boasted shade “valued his kinbotes society above that of all other people in academic suburbia” (nabokov, 1962, p. 24). kinbote also admired shades gift and magic power of creating poems. shade created a long autobiographical poem in his last 20 days. after shade died, kinbote got the manuscript and added a commentary to some lines of the poem in a tourist cabin in a fictitious state utana from then to october, 1959. kinbote advised the readers to read the book in such a way: to consult the commentary first and then study the poem; reread the commentary as they go through the poem; after finishing the poem they can consult the commentary a third time so as to complete the picture. he emphasized the importance of his commentary and he believed that without his notes shades poem will have no human reality at all. the second part is shades four-canto poem pale fire in heroic couplets. shades poem describes several aspects of his life. canto one includes shades thought on reality and imagination, his childhood and illness. canto two is about shades ideas on love and death, in other words, he describes his first proposal, his marriage with sybil and the suicide of his daughter hazel. canto three is about shades search for knowledge of afterlife. he focuses on his sudden encounter with death and the sign of a white fountain. he cherishes a faint hope to find supernatural power, but only finds that is a coincidence. canto four provides readers with shades life details and the creation of the poem pale fire. in this canto shade expressed his ideas on beauty, and showed the relationship between art and reality. the third part is kinbotes commentary. kinbote takes the form of notes and makes comment on some lines of shades poem. kinbote is said to offer some references to 宁夏大学硕士学位论文 introduction 6 shades poem, but actually he does surprisingly little explication on the poem. instead of concerning about shades poem, kinbote focuses on the following three intermixing stories. the first story is about kinbotes life in new wye. kinbote shows his apartment, his neighborhood, his colleagues, but he pays more attention to the smooth relationship with shade. he respects and reveres shades great gift on poems, so he repeatedly inspires shade by recounting charless stories and zembla to shade. he envisions shade could write a grand poem about zembla. after shade is murdered, he acquires the manuscript and some variants, and he treats the poem as precious. the second story is about charles xavier vseslav, “the beloved”, who is the exiled king from zembla. he was once imprisoned by the soviet-backed revolutionaries. with the help of a secret passage and some loyal adherents, he successfully escaped from the palace. kinbote repeatedly claims that the allusions of charles ii and zembla can be detected in shades poem, especially in rejected variants. actually, there is no trait of zembla and