（英语语言文学专业论文）《贵妇人画像》中的戏剧化手法.pdf

vi 摘 要 摘 要 亨利詹姆斯是美国杰出的小说家、评论家。他不仅以表现欧美文化冲突的国际性 题材小说著称文学界，同时以其关于小说创作的理论对后世文学产生深远影响。 贵妇 人画像 是詹姆斯创作早期的一部长篇小说， 也是他国际主题小说的主要代表作品之一。 詹姆斯十分注重小说创作的艺术，并强调小说的真实感在小说创作中起着重要作 用。为了使小说具有强烈的真实感，詹姆斯选择戏剧化手法进行小说创作。本文主要运 用热奈特的叙事学理论， 对詹姆斯在小说 贵妇人画像 中的戏剧化写作技巧进行分析。 本文引言部分综述了詹姆斯小说创作中的主要理论观点， 并梳理了国外评论家对詹 姆斯小说叙事学角度的分析，以及中国詹姆斯小说研究的现状。 第一章从叙事情境的角度探讨了贵妇人画像中的戏剧化创作手法。热奈特认为 “叙事情境”包含叙事聚焦和叙事声音两要素。 贵妇人画像中，詹姆斯主要采用了 内聚焦的方式，使小说情节透过女主人公的视点展开，同时小说还实现了内聚焦与外聚 焦的转换，将其他人物的言行展现给读者，聚焦的变化使小说具有了戏剧化特点，并增 强了小说的真实感。小说采用第三人称进行叙述，避免了使用第一人称的“体验自我” 与“叙述自我”之间的差异对小说真实感的影响，非人格化的叙述者将故事客观的展示 给读者，实现了小说的戏剧化。 第二章从场景角度分析贵妇人画像中的戏剧化。对话是戏剧的主要构成要素， 也是小说中构造戏剧场景的主要手段之一。在小说中，詹姆斯大量使用人物的对话构成 戏剧性场景来表达其国际性主题。此外，詹姆斯在人物对话中使用了大量的意象，使广 博的国际主题和生活主题形象化，更有利于小说的真实感。詹姆斯注重人的意识，并将 女主人公的意识转化为场景，戏剧般的展示给读者，使小说具有了强烈的真实感。 第三章从时空角度来分析贵妇人画像中的戏剧化。小说采用了戏剧手法，在浓 缩的时空中表现主题。同时等时叙述将戏剧化场景真实地展现给读者，概述加速了时间 的跳跃，实现了小说戏剧化场景的转变。浓缩的空间不仅具有戏剧特点，而空间的转换 使小说呈现画像形状的同时还呈现出戏剧性的故事结构。 通过以上三章的分析，文章得出结论：詹姆斯通过小说中精湛的创作技巧实现了小 说的戏剧化，使小说获得了强烈的真实感。 关键词：戏剧化 真实感 叙述情境 场景 时空 iv abstract henry james is a prominent american novelist and literary critic. he is remarkable in literature for his international theme which reflects the cultural conflict between america and europe. he also has great influence on novel writing of the later writers. the portrait of a lady, which is written at the early stage of his career, is one of his masterpieces on the international theme. henry james attaches great importance to the art of fiction and stresses that the sense of reality plays an important role in novel. he chooses the scenic methods in order for the achievement of the intense air of reality in his novels. this thesis attempts to employ genettes narrative theory to explore james dramatic techniques in the portrait of a lady. the introduction reviews jamess theories about the art of fiction, discusses the foreign critics interpretation of jamess works from the narrative perspective, and accounts the current research of james study in china. the first chapter explores the dramatic techniques in the portrait of a lady from the angle of narrative situation. according to gentte, narrative situation consists of focalization and voice. in the portrait of a lady, james mainly uses internal focalization to filtrate the story, and external focalization to record the other characters conduct. the variation of internal and external focalizations makes the novel dramatic and enhances the air of reality. third-person narrative avoids the difference between narrator i and experiencing i which affects the authenticity of the narration. the impersonal heterodiegetic narrator presents the story to the reader objectively, achieving dramatization of the novel and the air or reality. the second chapter analyzes the scenes in the portrait of a lady. dialogue is a main element in drama, and it is also a principal one in dramatic scenes. in the portrait of a lady, james uses a lot of dialogues to present the dramatic scenes and express his international theme. the images the characters use in their dialogues not only concrete the extensive international theme and the concept of life, but also increase the sense of reality. james pays attention to the protagonists consciousness, and turns it to a scene, presenting to the reader dramatically, enhancing the air of reality. v the third chapter gives an analysis of the features of time and space in the portrait of a lady. the story happened in condensed time and space chronologically like a drama. the isochronous presentation shows the dramatic scenes vividly to the reader. summary speeds up the narration and makes the changes of scenes naturally. the condensed space has the dramatic feature, and the changes of the places render the novel both a shape of portrait and a shape of dramatic structure. from the exploration of this novel, this thesis reaches the conclusion that henry james achieves dramatization and the air of reality in this novel with his exquisite narrative techniques. key words: dramatization the air of reality narrative situation scene time and space iii 学位论文原创性声明学位论文原创性声明 本人所提交的学位论文“dramatization in the portrait of a lady”，是在导师的指导 下，独立进行研究工作所取得的原创性成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不 包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。 对本文的研究做出重要贡献的 个人和集体，均已在文中标明。 本声明的法律后果由本人承担。 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师确认（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书 学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解河北师范大学有权保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交学 位论文的复印件和磁盘，允许论文被查阅和借阅。本人授权河北师范大学可以将学位论 文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或其它复制手段保 存、汇编学位论文。 （保密的学位论文在 年解密后适用本授权书） 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 1 introduction henry james (1843-1916) was a remarkable american novelist, stylist and literary critic. he was not only an important figure in the american literature but also an influential writer in the english literature, for he spent much of his life in england and was naturalized as a british subject eventually in 1915. he was a prolific writer. during his professional life, he wrote 22 novels, 113 stories，many critical essays and a good number of notebooks. he is acknowledged as the pioneer of psychological realism and famous for his international novels and his innovation of the form and techniques of novel writing. he made great contribution to the literary world, influencing on the modern novel. he was one of the most influential writers at the cross of the 19th and the 20th century, earning permanent admiration. in his professional career, henry james did a great many experiments. he not only discovered his subject: the international theme, that is, the contrast between europe, which is ancient, sophisticate and decadent, and america, which is young, optimistic and innocent, but also explored the form and methods of novel writing and formed his own literary theory about novel. his novels and his criticism made him a preeminent figure in literature. t. s. eliot regards him as “the most intelligent man of his generation”.i philip raw, a famous american critic, also considers him as the greatest american novelist. henry james paid attention to art all his life, and he used it persistently as a profitable strategy for the construction of his fiction. the art of fiction, which belongs to the canon in literary criticism, vividly explains jamess ideas about novel. james emphasized that a novel should be interesting, and that the interest should be related with the relationship between life and novel. for james, “the only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does compete with life”ii and “a novel is in its broadest definition a personal impression of life: that, to begin with, constitutes its value, which is greater or less according to the intensity of the impression”.iii “the success of a work of art, to my mind, may be measured by the degree to which it produces a certain illusion; that illusion makes it appear to us for a time that we have lived another lifethat we have had a miraculous enlargement of experience.”iv to present 2 the illusion of life, james believed that the vivid sense of reality was the first aid in fiction. he attached great importance to the air of reality. “ the air of reality (solidity of specification) seems to me be the supreme virtue of a novel the merits on which all its other merits helplessly and submissively depend.”v according to james, “the house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million a number of possible windows not to be reckoned, rather; every one of which has been pierced, or is still pierceable in its vast front, by the need of the individual vision and by the pressure of the individual will.”vi thus, a writer should select the methods he thinks the most appropriate to express his subject and accomplish his aesthetic aims. dramatization, which is the reconstruction of an event, story, novel and so on in a form suitable for dramatic presentation, is a method james often and deliberately used in his novels, for he considered the scenic method as the best way to achieve the sense of reality. as one of the windows of the house of jamess fiction, dramatization has the effect of verisimilitude, a value which is based on the supposition that the reader will respond to what he or she believes is real, enhances the air of reality and produces the illusion of life which james pursued in his novels all his life. the portrait of a lady, written in 1881, is one of henry jamess best-known international novels, which won james great reputation on both sides of the atlantic. the story is not complex, telling the experience of a young american girl abroad. isabel acher, the heroine, is a pretty and intelligent american girl, pursuing independence and spiritual freedom. she is invited by her aunt mrs. touchett to england. at her uncle, mr. touchetts house, she meets her cousin ralph, who is friendly, intelligent but in a poor healthy condition, and his friend, lord warburton. she declines warburtons sudden proposal of marriage, and then rejects the offer of marriage of caspar goodwood, an american businessman, who is a representative of the american with the characters of simplicity, capability, charisma, but lack of sophistication. before his death, mr. touchett is convinced by ralph and leaves a great deal of property to isabel. then isabel travels europe with her legacy to explore and experience life. she hopes to find the realization of her vague dreams on the real world. unfortunately, she is caught by a terrible trap of marriage which is made by her husband gilbert osmond and her so-called friend mrs. merle, osmonds former and secret lover. isabel discovers their intrigue finally and gets to know the truth of life eventually at a high 3 price of her happiness. the portrait of a lady is often and justifiably regarded as the culmination of jamess first creative period, and its success marks the beginning of his middle years in his professional career. some critics consider that it is a perfect work and see it as a significant work in the history of fiction. f.r. leavis exalts it and jamess the bosonians as “the two most brilliant novel in the language”vii. james spent much of his life in fictional writing and made great efforts to explore new methods of novel writing. he hoped to find readers able to appreciate his efforts. to his disappointment, he was not widely read in his life, but critics soon fulfilled his aspiration. james is recognized and gets his reputation after his death with the development of modern novels and the vogue of freudian approach. he is always the key figure most discussed in literary criticism. william dean howells, his contemporary writer and critic, did the most to discover and recognize the genius of james from his early years through his major phases. the criticism of henry james has experienced three stages of exploration and assertion, consolidation and full flowering, revaluation or reinterpretation, like the criticism of other major figures. critics study james from many different aspects, such as his person, themes, psychological study, and cultural study and so on. every school claims james as a forerunner of their own, and james is installed at the center of literature. james had great interest in narrative techniques and practiced actively to explore new narrative methods. his literary critical essays, especially the new york edition prefaces he wrote for his fictions have been generally regarded as the elementary documents for anglo-american novel theory. james is regarded as a great conductor between the 19th and the 20th century traditions of narrative. jamess novel theory influenced the development of narratology. many critics study james from the perspective of his narrative techniques, and a series of books dedicate to jamess criticism on narrative. the early criticism from joseph beach and percy lubbock attended to technique and theme and highly admired jamess new york edition prefaces. they set the early tone for academic criticism and established a pattern dominating james study for more than half a century. percy lubbock was a follower of henry james. he studied jamess works, especially his essays on the techniques of novel writing such as the point of view and his scenic methods to achieve the air of reality. lubbocks the craft of fiction applied the standards 4 extracted from jamess prefaces to evaluate some major classic writers such as flaubert and tolstoy. this book codified “point of view” and the methods of dramatization in fiction. it canonized jamess theory of fiction and set the phase for the great revival of james. r. p. blackmur collected jamess eighteen prefaces to the new york edition into one book the art of the novel with a sparkling introduction. he evaluated jamess essays as “the most sustained and the most eloquent and original piece of literary criticism in existence”viii. the art of novel expanded beach and lubbocks approach, gave an outline of jamess theory of novel and codified jamess aesthetic principles. it reaffirmed henry jamess reputation in literature. f. o. matthiessens henry james: the major phase invented an expression for jamess late work. it analyzed james later novels by a highly aesthetic-moral approach, and put emphasis on jamess character, metaphor, theme, and structure. wayne booth wrote his famous and far-reaching “rhetoric of fiction” by studying jamess works. in this book he proceeded to study the question of point of view, put forward and discussed some concepts like implied author, unrealizable narrator and aesthetic distance, and employed them to explore jamess novels, including his methods of dramatization. james e. miller, jr.s theory of fiction: henry james rearranged henry jamess theory of novel-writing in terms of literary imagination, literature psychology, style, narrative techniques and the readers response. john goode edited a collection titled the air of reality, and emphasized jamess strong mimesis and his cultural techniques, as its title indicates. r. w. j. wilsons henry jamess ultimate narrative gave a comprehensive analysis of the narrative techniques of jamess the golden bowl, and presented this novel among jamess cannon. daniel mark fogels henry james and the structure of the romantic imagination considered that jamess romantic structure as the design of spiral return. fogel also edited a companion to henry james studies collected some recent essays on james from many aspects, such as the historical narrative which is also closely related to jamess point of view, his theory of fiction and its relationship with the postmodernism and so on. 5 nowadays james study gets more and more attention and the number of the books about the criticism of henry james increases greatly. different schools study james with their own theories. for example, new essays on the portrait of a lady edited by joel porte collected some essays about the novel from narrative and other perspectives, showing how astonishingly impressionable jamess early fiction is to contemporary theory such as the modern narrative and psychoanalysis. in china, the study of henry james is not as fruitful as overseas. it mainly focuses on jamess theory and the text interpretation. dai xianmeis between tradition and moderness: henry jamess theory of fiction studied henry jamess critic works and his novels, explored jamess ideology about literary creation and the origin of his technical innovation of novel writing and testified jamess important position linking the tradition and modernity in literature. wang yalis narrative technique and gender ideology: a study on henry james adopted a feminist-narratological perspective to discuss jamess five novels and approached his narrative choice to the issues of women gender role and position. study of henry jamess fiction theory and practice written by wang minqin aimed to introduce henry jamess novel theory from the aspects of the summarization of james study, james as a theorist and james as a practitioner. it also analyzed how james applied his theory to his novels. generally speaking, the study of henry james in china is still at the beginning stage and lacks systematicness. there are few essays or books focusing on the analysis of jamess methods in one work. this thesis mainly explores the dramatic methods in jamess famous novel the portrait of a lady from the narrative perspective. henry jamess eight dramas got no fulfillment, but influenced his later novel writing greatly. he used the method of dramatization in his novels to produce the air of reality and arouse readers interest. “in this truth resides the secret of the discriminated occasion that aspect of the subject which we have our noted choice of treating either as picture or scenically, but which is apt, i think, to show its fullest worth in the scene.”ix picture james mentioned here is “the reflection of events in the mirror of somebodys receptive consciousness”x, while the dramatic manner or the scene means the author places the reader “in front of the visible 6 and audible facts of the case, and leave it to these to tell the story”xi. dramatization, in jamesian terminology, is the scenic rendering of situations and events particularly, of the characters speech and behavior. by this method, the narrator only represents the story but shows nothing about his own attitudes and evaluation, and the narration of the story is mainly restricted to what one character sees and hears, meanwhile, the inner feelings of the character is also presented in the readers visual field as an explicit act. james preferred the dramatic manner and used it skillfully. dramatization gives his novels the air of reality which henry james always emphasized and achieves a highly aesthetic effect. the ambassado