（英语语言文学专业论文）《马戏团之夜》中狂欢化特征的蕴涵.pdf

ii 内 容 摘 要 内 容 摘 要 安吉拉卡特是英国二十世纪颇具影响力的女性主义作家。杰夫范德米尔曾称 赞卡特是二十世纪当之无愧的，最具创造性的作家，她的独特风格无人可比。魔幻现 实主义、荒诞派小说、科幻小说、哥特小说、女性主义、后现代主义都可指涉其作品， 但皆不足以涵盖其全部，除了超现实主义，没有任何一种文体始终贯穿于她的整个创 作体系。她在 1992 年辞世时，留给了后人一笔颇为可观的文学遗产：九部长篇小说， 三部短篇小说集，四部童话集，两卷报刊撰文和一本极具争议的文论集萨德般的女 人 。 小说马戏团之夜是卡特的经典著作之一。此书一经出版即引起国内外评论界 的关注。许多研究者和评论家从女性主义，魔幻现实主义，小说复杂的主题思想等多 种角度对这本书进行了详细的解读。批评方法的多样性，切入角度的多元化体现了小 说自身的包容性。然而，很少有人把安吉拉卡特的小说马戏团之夜与巴赫金的 狂欢化特征联系起来，并且从这个角度进行分析。 巴赫金是 20 世纪俄国最具创造性同时也是最具争议性的思想家，他的狂欢化理 论曾经引起广泛争论，将其应用于文学文本的批评和解读的努力也不鲜见。本文利用 巴赫金的狂欢化理论对马戏团之夜进行了重新解读，试图向人们揭示蕴涵在作品 中的深刻的狂欢化特征。 该文分为五个章节。第一章为引言，包括对作家及其主要作品的介绍，对马戏 团之夜相关评论的总结。 第二章简要介绍了巴赫金的生活经历和他的狂欢化理论的三个重要概念：狂欢， 狂欢式，狂欢化。狂欢既是一种对世界的感受，又是一种语言和具体的文学样式。而 狂欢式意指一切狂欢节的庆贺、仪礼等形式的总和。它包括身体的亲昵接触，插科打 浑，俯就和粗鄙。狂欢式转为文学的语言，这就是我们所谓的狂欢化。狂欢节文化在 整个官方世界的彼岸建立了第二世界和第二生活，以此作为一种反叛的姿态，与官方 生活形成对峙。狂欢化了的文学作品同样具有挑战传统的刻板的文学样式的功能。 第三章是本文的主要章节，解读了小说中充溢着的狂欢精神。即：颠覆精神，平 等精神和乌托邦精神。 第四章探讨了小说中的狂欢大众。这些狂欢大众由成对的形象、小丑形象以及狂 欢广场组成。 最后一章是本文结论部分，作者对全文进行了综述，充分肯定了马戏团之夜 中渗透的狂欢成分。巴赫金的狂欢化理论和卡特的马戏团之夜之间存在一种无意 iii 识的理论和实践的关系。狂欢化理论为马戏团之夜提供了理论基础，而马戏团 之夜反之证实了狂欢化理论在文学创作中的存在性。毫无疑问，卡特是一位女性主 义作家，她对于狂欢化的运用仅仅局限于女性主义的批判范围以内，但正是因为在小 说马戏团之夜中狂欢化的运用，才使得她的女性主义思想有了更积极的含义。 关键词：狂欢化理论关键词：狂欢化理论 狂欢化特征狂欢化特征 巴赫金巴赫金 安吉拉卡特安吉拉卡特 马戏团之夜马戏团之夜 iv abstract angela carter (1940-92) is a famous feminist novelist of last century. jeff vandermeer concludes that angela carter, undoubtedly, is a 20th century original. no matter what one thinks of her writing, no one can argue that she is ever less than unique. magic realism, surrealism, fantasy, science fiction, gothic, feminism, post-modernismall of these categories apply, and yet all are one-dimensional in their application to carter; none of them, with the possible exception of surrealism, encompass the full spectrum of her accomplishments. angela carter left behind an impressive literary legacy when she died in 1992: nine novels, three collections of short stories, four collections of childrens stories, two collections of journalism and one controversial critical essaythe sadeian womanthe most relevant to an appreciation of her novels. nights at the circus is one of carters masterpiece. the publication of the novel quickly catches the critical attentions at home and abroad. a lot of researchers and critics have made the detailed analysis of this book from the perspective of feminism, magical realism, its complex themes, etc. the diverse approaches and pluralistic perspectives of criticism reflect the inclusive nature of the novel itself. however, few have ever proposed theoretical connections between angela carters nights at the circus and carnival features and given critical analysis in this line. bakhtin is arguably the most original and yet the most misunderstood russian thinker of the 20th century. his carnival theory, though greatly controversial，has been applied to the analysis of varied literary texts ever since its creation. the thesis tries a new interpretation with bakhtins carnival theory to uncover the profound carnival features in the novel. the thesis is divided into five chapters. chapter 1 is a brief introduction to the author and her main works, and a review of critics studies on the book nights at the circus. chapter 2 briefly introduces bakhtins life and the three key terms of his carnival theory: carnival, carnivalesque and carnivalization. carnival is both a general sense of the world and of language and a specific literary form. carnivalesque is the carnivalizing of normal life. it includes familiar contact with people, parody, degradation and debasing, and so on. carnivalization refers to the process of transforming carnivalesque into literary forms. meant by its broadest sense, it is essentially a rebellious form of literature. chapter 3 is the main part of this thesis; it approaches nights at the circus from the v angle of carnivalesque spirit of the world: the spirit of subversion, equality and utopia. chapter 4 is the study of the carnival collective alive in the novel, including the paired-images, the carnival clowns and the carnival square . the last chapter is the conclusion, the writer sums up the major points of the whole thesis and affirms that nights at the circus is a carnivalized novel and bakhtins theory and carters practice on carnival is in a corresponding relationship. carters nights at the circus presents for bakhtins theory an exemplification, while bakhtin in turn lends carter a theoretical basis for fiction. without question, carter is a feminist writer that she frames her use of the carnivalesque within a feminist critique of it， but the use of the carnivalesque in nights at the circus somehow lends her feminism a more positive note. key words: carnival theory, carnival features, bakhtin, angela carter, nights at the circus i 三峡大学学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下，独立进行研究工作所 取得的成果，除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不含任何其他个人或集体已经发 表或撰写过的作品成果。 对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体均已在文中以明确 方式标明，本人完全意识到本声明的法律后果由本人承担。 学位论文作者签名： 日 期： 1 1. introduction angela carter (1940-92) is arguably the most widely read contemporary woman writer in the uk today, and one of the most widely read in the usa, australia, europe and the far east. there are many aspects to her life as a writer and she completed nine novels, three collections of short stories, four collections of childrens stories, two collections of journalism and one controversial critical essaythe sadeian womanthe most relevant to an appreciation of her novels. she explores aspects of western sexuality through a series of strange fables. her works touch upon sexism, racism, and classism. as she is interested in the blurred boundaries between realism and illusion, she is also called writer of magical realism or postmodernism in addition to feminist writer. she received a number of literary awards during her lifetime, including the rhys memorial prize, the maugham award, the cheltenham festival prize, and the james tait black memorial prize. her forms of stories and novels have been considered as a major british contribution to the international revival of literary fantasy and fable. angela carters nights at the circus (1984), a highly original and influential work of modern british literature, combines a fantastically creative plot with a strong political undertone. the result is an emotive and provocative novel, which attracted much critical attention from a range of perspectives including post-structuralism, gender studies postmodernism and psychoanalysis. 1.1 angela carters life and her works angela carter was born on may 7, 1940 to a family of socialists in south london. her maiden name was stalker, “carter” belonging to her first husband. after the divorce, she chose to retain it as her own. born into such a family of which most of the immediate female relatives were strong women of striking candor and pragmatism, carters inner world was greatly influenced by them in her childhood. well-off but pro-active, carter anguished over the closing of mines and the breaking of mining strikes in the 1960s and over the failures of the socialist revolution in generals. as a child and adolescent, carter was an avid film goer and her father would take her to the old hollywood films in the glamorized elegance and opulent settings of local cinemas, where she was influenced by the artifice, the excess and the glamorous representations of men and women, particularly that of various screen goddesses. her appreciation of artifice and elegance influenced her lifelong love of the cinema and hollywood film, and her awareness of how gender and 2 identity are social constructions. angela carter worked for some time as a junior reporter on the croydon advertiser, where she probably gained insights into human nature and the everyday world. the distinction between fact and fiction emerges as a dead end mainly because carter is a writer who was absorbed in ideas, which, by definition, transcend these two categories. carters education is important in this respect. she read english at bristol university in 1962-1965 with a particular focus on course dealing with european medieval literature. while reading there, carter hung out in sidewalk cafes and at smoky backroom poetry readings. in addition to absorbing the bohemian nightlife, she studied psychology and anthropology. she also developed a strong liking for rimbaud and racine and for french literature in general. this fulfilled her sense of rewriting fairy tales and greatly enriched her feminist literary creation. from 19768, she was fellow in creative writing at sheffield university, which played a very important role in her literary creation. another key aspect of angela carters life which is reflected in the novel is her internationalism. she was widely traveled and, as well as her teaching engagements in the usa and australia. divorcing her first husband, she spent three years living in japan (1969-72), where she became interested in japanese surrealism and where she could view western europe from a position of absolute otherness (sage, 1994: 99) but this experience of estrangement affected her writing about the constructs of gender roles, the representation of self and her awareness of the multiple possibilities of identity and reality. intellectually and creativity, it is also striking how much angela carters writing and nights at the circus in particular, is informed by other european cultures and non-western traditions of literature and philosophy. although the novel has london as its vivid foundation and starting place, the plan is always that fevvers will slip away immediately on a grand imperial tour, to russia and then japan from where she will take a ship to seattle, for the start of a grand democratic tour of the united states of america (carter, 1984: 11). of course, by the time she sets out to return to london at the close of the novel, this plan has been literally derailed: japan and the usa are never reached, and the journey turns into a blind struggle and an improvisation. likewise, the novel itself is unquestionably british, rooted as it is initially in londons geography, idioms and popular cultureor at least a stage version of these. rather, as this book will demonstrate, it is a novel that is packedboth formally and thematicallywith references to other literatures, philosophies and cultures. in the main, these connections are european, but also include the shamans of 3 siberia, for whom western conceptions of history and geography are utterly strange and unknown, though they are shown to have a complex cosmology of their own.(carter, 1984:253). angela carter, therefore, is a writer who, though steeped in british writers such as william shakespeare and william blake, possessed a life experience and intellectual inquisitiveness that also made her an enthusiastic and curious internationalist. angela carter was certainly young when she died of cancer in 1992(aged fifty-one) and it is clear that she died at the height of her powers with still a very great deal more to offer. also, as the author salman rushdie put it in his obituary: in spite of her worldwide reputation, here in britain she had somehow never quite had her due.(rushdie, 1992:5) following her death, however, a burgeoning popular and academic interest in her work developed, both in britain and internationally. indeed, as sarah gamble points out, it became commonplace in the 1990s to cite the british academys claim that, in the year after angela carters death (1992-3), they received forty applications for funding to support research projects on angela carters work, which was more than they received for all the projects concerning the eighteenth century.(gamble,1997:1) carters position of the contemporary narrative provocateur, to some extent, depends on her remarkable revision of myths. lorna sage, the major researcher whose volume is a must-read in carter study, comments on carters notable feature that new wine in old bottles was already one of her most serviceable slogans for her practice as a novelist.(sage, 2001:65) jeannette king, in the essay a dissenting voice, concludes carters rewriting of myths and its significance, while ready to use biblical myths and others in her work, carter is not interested in construing alternative, feminist myths as a source of positive imagery and symbolism for contemporary women.(king, 2000:135) in her short life, carter created so many works that aroused her time, stir the world and will still attract the worlds attention. in 1965, angela carter published her first novel shadow dance. since then, she displayed the world her surprisingly productive power: the magic toyshop (1967, john llewellyn rhys prize), several perceptions (1968, somerset maugham award), heroes and villains (1969), love (1971), the passion of new eve (1977), nights at the circus (1984) and wise children (1991). besides these novels, she published three collections of short stories: fireworks (1974), the bloody chamber (1979), and black venus (1985). her essay of the sadeian woman: an exercise in cultural history (1979) aroused more controversial criticisms among feminist writers. in addition, her two collections of journalism, nothing sacred (1982) and expletives deleted (1992) can be 4 great help in carter study. it is important to know something of the status and popular recognition that carter achieved in her lifetime and particularly of the role that nights at the circus had as the novel which finally brought carter the critical praise and acknowledgement that had previously eluded her. carter is now widely accepted as one of britains most distinctive and original twentieth-century female writers, and it was with this novel, nights at the circus, that this reputation was finally established. as many observers have acknowledged, nights at the circus was the product of what lorna sage has described as the hinge-moment or turning point(sage, 2002:221) in carter s career. nights at the circus is rich with intertextual references to poetry and novels, to yeats, dickens, zola and shakespeare among others. perched on the cusp between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it provides a historically rich, fantastically laden exploration of ways in which women are mythologized, constructed as saints or whores. it suggests new potential for woman in the volatile period of the new woman at the nineteenth centurys end, leading to suffragettes and social changes in the next century. 1.2 current studies on nights at the circus ever since its publication, the novel has received warm discussion from contemporary critics. they analyzed the novel from different perspectives. in china, only a few critics study nights at the circus. most of them have analyzed this novel from the perspective of feminism, and try to explore carters persistent contemplation of the reconstruction of the heterosexual relationship or womens rebellions against patriarchy. and there are also some critics on its thematic feature. however, all of them focus on its feminist theme. for example, on the thematic feature of angela carters fiction by feng haiqing, on the narrative point of view in nights at the circus by wang fang. zeng xuemei from chong qing normal university has written an article about this novel from the view of its metafiction. additionally, the reviews and analysis of angela carters literary works are, at least in china, mainly focusing on the general introduction of her literary reputation as a contemporary feminist novelist or the foremost practitioners of postmodernism and metafiction, but the literary value of her works remains doubtable. the overseas research on carter and her works goes many years ahead of china, which are much more theoretical, systematical and prosperous. although there were views coincident with the publications of her books and pioneering essays on angela carters work in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the bulk of criticism which has established her 5 reputation took place after her death in 1992. among academic critics especially those such as lorna sage who had already been engaged by carters work, nights at the circus quickly become an exciting challenge, precisely because of its radical politics and the way ir appeared to flaunt existing literary categories. debates about the merits of nights at the circus have, broadly speaking, revolved around several key areas: feminism and gender, the carnivalesque, history and politics, postmodernism and genre. a great part of the critical attention has been focused on the feminism in nights at the circus, magali cornier michael, in the article angela carters nights at the circus: an engaged feminism via subversive postmodern strategies, analyzes the novel from the perspective of feminism which consists of an engaged marxist feminism and a subversive utopian feminism. she explains that the novel strives to conjoin these two strands of feminism in order to posit a feminism that would be liberating while retaining sociohistoric groundinga feminism that would free human beings from the hierarchical relations in which western culture, with its binary logic, has entrapped them, without becoming disengaged from the material situation.(haffenden, 1985:89) in addition, critics show some interest in postmodernism in nights at the circus. heather johnson discusses the metafictional elements in the novel; her essay places nights at the circus in th