（英语语言文学专业论文）《达·芬奇密码》的后现代主义解读.pdf

vi 摘 要 达芬奇密码是美国作家丹布朗 2003 年出版的一部神秘侦探悬疑小说，一上市 就在美国出版界刮起了一场几乎前所未有的风暴。 达芬奇密码占据纽约时报畅销书 排行榜第一的位置长达两年之久，并且出现在世界各地的畅销书名单上。截止到 2006 年 5 月， 达芬奇密码已经出版了 6000 多万册，并被翻译成 44 种语言。数百万的读 者为书中的故事而痴狂，追寻着哈佛大学密码学教授罗伯特兰登的脚步进入虚幻的世 界：在调查巴黎卢浮宫博物馆馆长谋杀案的过程中，罗伯特兰登意外的发现了郇山修 隐会隐藏多年的令人震惊的古老真相耶稣基督不是一个神， 他是一个和抹大拉的玛利 亚结婚并留下子嗣的凡人。 在世界各地获得巨大成功的 达芬奇密码 不仅点燃了普通读者对欧洲宗教、 历史、 建筑和艺术的热情，也受到了不同领域学者的广泛关注，特别是来自于历史和宗教学者 的关注。 书中关于圣杯和抹大拉的玛利亚在基督教历史上角色的推测更是遭到了罗马天 主教和基督教徒的严厉谴责，被认为是对罗马教廷的恶意不实攻击。 不管怎样，小说达芬奇密码的巨大成功促成了一个现代文化现象，也受到了文 学评论界的关注。但是西方大部分的评论都集中在小说中的宗教问题上，相比之下国内 的评论多侧重于语言和小说技巧的部分，还是有很多的方面没有涉及到，例如：小说的 体裁，材料的选择和安排，叙述的时空结构和角度，等等。因此，该论文就是要从后现 代主义的角度，以后现代主义的三大特征不确定、互文性和碎片化为尺，对丹布朗 精湛的叙事艺术进行考量。 整个论文由五个部分组成，包括引言、三个主要章节和结论部分。 引言部分首先介绍了丹布朗的一些个人背景以及小说达芬奇密码的相关背景 材料和文学评论，讨论了达芬奇密码作为后现代作品的研究价值，继而简单阐述了 后现代主义的发展历程和趋势， 以及该篇论文所应用到的后现代主义三大特征的基本概 念。 第一章以达芬奇密码的不确定性特征为中心，分析了小说中呈现的几个明显的 不确定因素，诸如：混合的小说体裁、多层涵义的语言游戏、模糊的事实与虚构和开放 性的结尾。尽管在分析的过程中遇到大量有争议性的观点或信息，但是文章的重点不是 判断它们的是非黑白、对错与否，而是细细体会这些元素带给读者的强烈的不确定感。 vii 第二章集中讨论达芬奇密码的互文性特征，深入挖掘丹布朗的小说与其他相 关神秘材料的关系。主要包括圣血与圣杯与达芬奇密码的相似性，丹布朗对 女性形象有别于前的独特见解以及他对现实世界元素，如世界名画、常见符号、迪士尼 动画电影、商标广告、纽约杂志、邀请函、字母表、镜像文字、神秘组织网站和网络搜 索结果等，在文字虚幻世界的创造性使用。 第三章主要分析达芬奇密码的碎片化特征，集中考察丹布朗在小说中使用到 的后现代主义叙事技巧，如非线性叙事结构、变幻不定的叙事角度和混乱的叙事时间安 排。这些技巧的使用让读者能够真实的感受到不同时空范围里事件的发生和发展，更加 深入了解这个虚幻的小说世界，以便于更真切地体验刺激和惊险的寻宝之旅。 结论部分总结了全文的观点： 达芬奇密码作为一部名副其实的后现代作品，在 创作上获得巨大的成功。不管小说中提到的惊天秘密是真是假，追寻“圣杯”的旅程本 身就是一次追寻真理的过程，它给广大读者展现了一个全新的看历史、看世界的后现代 主义视角。 关键词：丹布朗达芬奇密码不确定性 互文性 碎片化 iv abstract written by american author dan brown, the mystery-detective fiction the da vinci code has taken the publishing world by a storm since it first appeared in the united states in 2003. the novel has remained on top of the new york times bestseller list for some 137 weeks and continues to be on bestseller lists worldwide, which has had 60.5 million copies in print by may 2006 and has been translated into 44 languages. millions of people fascinate in what happened in the story and willingly follow symbologist robert langdon into the fictional world. winning a great success worldwide, the novel not only rekindles the ordinary readers interest in european history, religion, architecture and arts, but also arrests the eye of serious scholars from different disciplines as well, especially in aspects of history and religion. however its challenging speculations on the holy grail legend and magdalenes role in the history of christianity have been strongly denounced by roman catholics and other christians as a dishonest attack on the catholic church. anyway, the da vinci code does have been widely acclaimed by many famous critics at home and abroad. but among them, there are few articles that emphasize research on the postmodern narrative art of this novel. most western scholars still concentrate on its controversial religious subject, while only a few articles by chinese researchers focus their attention to the novels language style and fictional techniques, leaving other issues remaining inadequately expounded. therefore, the present thesis intends to analyses dan browns exquisite narrative art on measures of three major postmodernistic features, indeterminacy, intertexuality and fragmentation. the present thesis will consist of five parts, including the introduction, three primary analysis chapters and a conclusion. the introduction starts with the background knowledge on dan brown and his novel. and later it covers the literature reviews of the novel the da vinci code, and touches the brief tendencies of postmodernism and its features. the following three chapters which deal with the three prominent features respectively are the major discussions in this thesis. v chapter one takes indeterminacy as its centre, and includes the analysis of indeterminate elements appeared in the novel, such as the mixed fiction genres, double references of language and word play, blurring of fact and fiction, and open ending. there are many terms and information on disputed issues mentioned in the process of analysis, but the point is not to make judgment on all the matters, but to enjoy the effect of uncertainty created by dan brown with all the materials. chapter two concentrates on the feature of intertexuality, and explores the deep relationship between dan browns novel and others secret resources, including holy blood and holy grail, some biblical resources, and elements from real world materials, such as famous paintings, often-seen symbols, walt disneys cartoon films, different brand names and advertising slogans, popular magazines, lecture flyer, alphabet diagram, reverse text, the websites of the secret organization, and even the search results from internet. . chapter three chooses fragmentation as the focus, and deepens the study by tracing postmodern narrative techniques used in the novel, especially in the aspects of non-linear narrative structure, shifting narrative perspective and disordered time sequence. with the help of those devices, readers can witness things happening in different places, and even go further into the fictional world and experience the exciting and break-breathing journey themselves. all of these discussions lead to the conclusion that as a postmodern fiction, the creation of the da vinci code is a great success. it does not matter whether the issue mentioned in novel is real or not. the adventure to find “holy grail” is the journey to find truth itself. it inspires the readers to look at history and the world from a new postmodernistc perspective. key words: dan brown, the da vinci code, indeterminacy, intertexuality, fragmentation 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 达芬奇密码的后现代主义解读 ，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 the da vinci code is a mystery-detective fiction written by american author dan brown and published by the doubleday group in the united states in 2003, which has taken the publishing world by storm. the novel has remained some 137 weeks atop the new york times bestseller list and continues to be on bestseller lists worldwide. it has had 60.5 million copies in print by may 2006 and has been translated into 44 languages. numbers do not tell the whole story; however, the fact is that the da vinci code is not just a book, but a worldwide phenomenon. dan brown, with his famous novel, becomes a name familiar to millions of people not only in the united states but all over the world as well. dan brown was born on june 22, 1964 in exeter, new hampshire. he attended phillips exeter academy and amherst college. his father richard g. brown was a prominent mathematics teacher at phillips exeter academy, and the textbooks written by him used in many states in america. dans mother constance was a professional musician, studying sacred music and playing the organ. his family background maybe is one of the reasons why dan brown has so comfortable dealing with multiple disciplines that the rest of the world might view as polar oppositesscience and religion. dan browns childhood was quite special. on christmas morning where most kids would find their presents under the christmas tree, his siblings and he might find a treasure map with codes that they would follow from room to room and eventually find their presents hidden somewhere else in the house. he grew up in a household where riddles and codes were just part of the way they had fun. additionally, he spent his childhood and youth time in the place with a long tradition of elite private clubs, fraternities, and secrecy new england, where ivy league universities, masonic lodges, and seats of governmental power all have their secret rituals and mysterious elements. given his unique family background, his familys emphasis on education and love of deciphering codes and puzzles, and his fascination with secret societies and history, it is not surprising that dan brown chooses those mysterious subjects for his novels. his early novel, digital fortress (1996) makes focus on the national security agency (nsa), or called as 2 central security service (css), which is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the united states government, administered as part of the united states department of defense. while another novel, deception point (2001) brings the attention to the national reconnaissance office (nro), which is one of the 16 u.s. intelligence agencies, part of the united states department of defense. both of them deal with secret governmental organizations. angles and demons (2000) reveals the conflict between science and religion. the european organization for nuclear research, known as cern, the worlds largest particle physics laboratory and the vatican city, the whole religious system are involved in the novel. unfortunately, these earlier novels were not well sold when they first appeared in the public. it is the da vinci code which combines all these themes in the earlier novels that catapults dan brown to celebrity. the staggering success of the da vinci code inspires readers to look back dan browns earlier novels, belatedly putting them on the new york times bestseller list as well. published in 2003, the da vinci code, actually is a sister story of angles and demons, combining the detective, thriller, history and conspiracy fiction genres all together. it follows american symbologist robert langdon as he involves in a murder investigation of the louvre museums curator jacques saunire, and a battle between the priory of sion and opus dei over the possibility that jesus christ may have been married to and had a child with mary magdalene. he traces the keystone, solves the puzzles and finds the real “holy grail” accompanied by sophie neveu, the alleged descendent of jesus and mary magdalene. browns novel the da vinci code gains a major success from the very beginning. it was reported at the time that doubleday had distributed an uncommonly high ten thousand complimentary copies of the book to stoke up the fires of the buzz machine. and it was the winner of the 2004 book sense book of the year awards in the adult fiction category. it spawned a number of offspring works and drew glowing reviews from the new york times, people, and the washington post. harlan coben, american author of mystery novel and thriller, confirmed “the da vinci code is a fascinating and absorbing readperfect for history buffs, conspiracy nuts, puzzle lovers or anyone who appreciates a great, riveting read.”1 american author of political thriller novels vince flynn extolled that “the da vinci code sets the hook-of-all-hooks. this novel takes off down a road that is as eye-opening as it 3 is page-turning. thriller readers everywhere will soon realize dan brown is a master.”2 people magazine commented it in the writings “a new master of smart thrills, a pulse-quickening, brain-teasing adventure.”3 patrick anderson, writing in the washington post, declared it “a theological thriller that is both fascination and fun.”4janet maslin of the new york times called the da vinci code a “gleefully erudite suspense novel”, “an exhilaratingly brainy thriller” and acclaimed that “not since the advent of harry potter has an author so flagrantly delighted in leading readers on a breathless chase and coaxing them through hoops.”5 the initial reviews were written by people who reviewed fiction for a living, and did not know whether the priory of sion was real or not, just commenting on the novel from the literary aspect, later more and more serious scholars commented on it with different criteria, mostly within religion and history. although brown had said that the issues which preoccupy the characters in the da vinci code matter to him on a personal level and had repeatedly insisted that the da vinci code was not meant to inspire denunciation of the church, however, the sensitive and offensive religious assumption mentioned in the novel still generated mostly negative reviews from catholic and other christian communities. archbishop of genoa and former second-in-command of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, tarcisio cardinal bertone castigated the book and those who sell it on grounds of anti-catholic bias, calling it “a throwback to the old anti-clerical pamphlets of the 1800s, a gross and absurd distortion of the history, full of cheap lies.”6 additional criticisms were directed towards the novels inaccurate descriptions of european art, history, architecture, and geography. numerous works had been published in detail why any claim to accuracy is difficult to substantiate, among them there were, dan burstein, secrets of the codes(2004) bart d. ehrman, truth and fiction in the da vinci code: a historian reveals what we really know about jesus, mary magdalene, and constantine(2004) sangeet duchane, beyond the da vinci code(2005) martin lunn, da vinci code decoded(2004) sharan newman, the real history behind the da vinci code(2005) darrell l bock, breaking the da vinci code(2006) and so on so forth. these books had made wide studies from historical, theological, architectural to geographical, 4 political, even astronomical aspects and tried hard to separate the fact from the fictional elements in the da vinci code, initiating worldwide interest on the history of christianity, the role of mary magdalene, the location of holy grail and the existence of the secret societies. the adapted film under the same name the da vinci code stared by tom hanks released in may 19, 2006. because of the same religious disputes, the film was also criticized by the roman catholic church. some bishops even urged people to boycott the film. many early showings were accompanied by protesters outside the movie theatres. however, the film earned over us$230 million worldwide in its opening weekend, which at the time was the third biggest opening in history.7 it undeniably started the second wave of the da vinci fever and inspired the continuous criticism on the da vinci code. while the da vinci fever swept the western religious countries, it did not leave china out. in china, especially after the chinese version translated by professor zhu zhenwu appeared in the book market, dan browns novel the da vinci code received much attention as well. many researches about da brown and his novels appeared in public, focusing on various aspects of the novel, but unlike the situation in america, there were no book-length studies having been published. having translated most of da browns works, professor zhu zhenwu explanted why da brown could gain such an unusual success in creation and stated that the da vinci code was an excellent model which blended the postmodernism with the popularity and predicted this novel would throw a light on the integration of the serious novel and the popular novel. influenced by professor zhu zhenwu, several young scholars in shanghai made further researches on da brown and his novels from narrative perspective, and explored his unique creative techniques. in others places, the studies on the da vinci code developed in different directions. among them, li heng explored this novel through culture studies from the perspective of anthropology; yang huilin deepened the studies of holy grail with symbolic system in religion, li yuanzhi approached its indeterminacy from angles of language, reality and characters, duan jinghong commented this novel on feminism, geng xiuping found the lack of the role of mother in most of da browns works, while li xuewei and ye mugui even made interpretation of the novel with new-historical theory. dan browns novel the da vinci code not only attracted the attentions of the scholars in literary 5 critic in china, several studies which highlighted the novels translation, and linguistic aspects in cross-cultural communication also appeared in magazine. based on all these studies, although the da vinci code has been considered as a version of postmodernism, its postmodern features have not been fully discovered jet, there are still room and subjects available in this novel for further explorations. under such circumstance, this thesis will make a close reading of the da vinci code through postmodernistic approach. postmodernism is a complicated term or set of ideas, and it is difficult to locate it temporally or historically, because it is not clear exactly when postmodernism begins. according to the earlier studies, the term “postmodernism” was firstly used around the 1870s in various areas. john watkins chapman stated a postmodern style of painting to get beyond the french impressionism. then, j.m.thompson took it to describe the change of attitudes and beliefs in the critique of religion in his 1914 article in the hibbert journal. in 1917 rudolf pannwitz used the term to a philosophically oriented culture, which came from nietzsches analysis of modernity and its ends of decadence and nihilism. in 1921 and 1925, it was borrowed to describe the new form of art and music. and it was not until 1939 that it began to be regarded as a general theory of the historical movement by the historian arnold j. toynbee. in 1942 h. r. hays mentioned it for a new literary form.8 the year of 1949 was a big time, for the term “postmodernism” was used to describe the dissatisfaction against the modern architecture, leading to the postmodern architecture movement, which mostly accepted as the beginning of todays postmodernism. it is hard to make a exact definiti