论拜厄特小说《占有》中的不确定性（可编辑）

论拜厄特小说《占有》中的不确定性（可编辑） 河南大学 硕士学位 论拜厄特小说《占有》中的不确定性 姓名:王亚男 申请学位级别:硕士 专业:语言文学 指导教师:吕长发 2011-03III 摘 要 安? 苏? 拜厄特(1936- )是20世纪英国文坛著名的小说家和文学评论家，长篇小 说《占有》是她最成功的一部作品，该于1990年出版并荣获当年英国文学的最高奖 ? 布克奖。《占有》一书涵盖诗歌、书信、日记、童话故事等多种叙事材，整个故事的 时间跨度包括了人类远古时期、维多利亚时代和当代社会，这样一本鸿篇巨著堪称后现 代主义的经典之作。 以往的评论家们大多从女权主义思想、后现代主义、新历史主义、原型批评等各个 方面入手，对小说《占有》进行了深入的探讨。尽管有一些评论家注意到小 说的后现代 特征，但他们的注意力仅限于对小说主题及小说中表现的后现代写作技巧方面的研究， 还没有太多地留意到小说的不确定性上，而这一特点正是后现代主义小说最核心的特 征。本文试图对这部小说的不确定性进行分析。 论文共分七部分，由引言、五章正文以及结论组成。 引言部分简要介绍作家拜厄特及其作品，小说《占有》及前人对《占有》的研究， 最后对本文的研究意义进行了概述。 第一章重点论述后现代的不确定性，这也是本文的理论框架。介绍后现代主义不确 定性的释义，产生背景以及体现方式。 第二章分析了小说叙述的不确定性。拜厄特在小说创作上采用了维多利亚传统的叙 述方式和现代叙述方式，还将虚构叙述和历史叙述结合在一起。正是多种叙述方式的相 互作用和叙述者视角与读者的角色不断变换，使整部小说的叙述具有了不确定的特点。 第三章主要探讨了情节的不确定性。这主要通过分叉式发展和开放式结尾的结构模 式来体现的。 第四章分析了人物的不确定性。整部小说充满了神秘和不确定的因素，小说中维多 利亚时代女诗人拉莫特对于每一个人来说都充满了神秘感。现代学者罗兰和莫德的性格 以及各个方面的差距决定了他们未来命运的不确定性。 第五章论述了语言的不确定性。语言是后现代主义的最重要的因素，从某种意义上 说，后现代主义的不确定性就是语言的不确定性。后现代主义小说家玩弄语言游戏、营IV 造语言迷宫，使语言具有不确定性。 结论部分是对全文的归纳总结。指出《占有》作为一部后现代小说，不确定的文本 给现代读者带来了前所未有的阅读体验。面对多层的叙述、扑朔迷离的情节、交错的时 空、谜一样的语言，读者只有积极主动地琢磨思考文本，才能进入作品的无限空间，享 受无穷乐趣。 关键词:《占有》，拜厄特，后现代，不确定性 I ABSTRACT A. S. Byatt 1936- is a distinguished British novelist and literary critic of the 20th century. The novel Possession is her most successful work, which was published in 1990 and won the Booker Prize, the highest prize of British literature, in the same year. Possession encompasses poetry, correspondence, journals, fairy tales and other narrative genres and the whole story spans from the ancient times, Victorian period to the modern world. This great work can be regarded as one of the postmodern classicsThe previous critics usually probed into this novel from different aspects, for example, feminism, postmodernism, Neo-historicism, and archetypal criticism. Although a few critics have noticed the postmodern features in this novel, their study is only limited to its themes and some aspects of postmodern writing techniques. There is no adequate attention paid to the indeterminacy reflected in this novel, but indeterminacy is the core feature of postmodern novels. The author in this thesis intends to make an analysis of this novel by using the postmodern indeterminacy theoryThe thesis consists of five chapters besides an introduction and a conclusionThe introductory part briefs readers on A. S. Byatt and her works and the novel Possession, a literature review, a brief summary of the theory concerned, and the significance of this study The first chapter focuses on postmodern indeterminacy which serves as the theoretical framework for the thesis and concentrates on the definition of indeterminacy, the background of indeterminacy, and ways of displaying indeterminacy in literary worksThe second chapter analyzes the indeterminacy of narrations. Byatt combines the traditional Victorian narration with modern narration, and fictional narration with historical narration in novel creation. It is the interaction of different narrations, the constant shift of II narrator’s point of view, and readers’ role that endows the novel’s narration with indeterminacyThe third chapter mainly explores the indeterminacy of plot which is displayed through the structure of bifurcating development and open endingThe fourth chapter centers on the indeterminacy of characters. This novel is full of mysterious and indeterminate factors. The Victorian female poet LaMotte in the novel is mysterious to everybody. The disposition of modern scholars Roland and Maud and many other differences between them decide their indeterminate future and fateThe fifth chapter deals with the indeterminacy of language. Language is the most important factor of postmodernism. To some extent, the indeterminacy of postmodernism is the indeterminacy of language. The postmodern writers play the word games and create the language labyrinth which makes the language indeterminateThe conclusion summarizes the thesis. As a postmodern novel, the indeterminacy brings unprecedented reading experience to modern readers. Facing the multiple narrations, the complicated and confusing plot, crossed time and space, and the labyrinth-like language, readers have to actively think of and ponder over the text before they can enjoy themselves in the infinite world of novels Key Words: Possession, Byatt, Postmodern, Indeterminacy 关于学位论文独创声明和学术诚信承诺 本人向河南大学提出硕士学位申请。本人郑重声明:所呈交的学位论文是本人在导 师的指导下独立完成的，对所研究的课题有新的见解。据我所知，除文中特别加以说明、 标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包括其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果，也不包括其 他人为获得任何教育、科研机构的学位或证书而使用过的。与我一同工作的同事对 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。 在此本人郑重承诺:所呈交的学位论文不存在舞弊作伪行为，文责自负。学位申请人(学位论文作者)签名: 201 年月日 关于学位论文著作权使用授权书 本人经河南大学审核批准授予硕士学位。作为学位论文的作者，本人完全了解并同 意河南大学有关保留、使用学位论文的要求，即河南大学有权向国家图书馆、科研信息 机构、数据收集机构和本校图书馆等提供学位论文(纸质文本和电子文本)以供公众检 索、查阅。本人授权河南大学出于宣扬、展览学校学术发展和进行学术交流等目的，可 以采取影印、缩印、扫描和拷贝等复制手段保存、汇编学位论文(纸质文本和电子文本)。(涉及保密内容的学位论文在解密后适用本授权书)学位获得者(学 位论文作者)签名: 201年月日 学位论文指导教师签名: 201年月日 Introduction1 Introduction 0.1 The Life of A. S. Byatt and Her Literary Achievements In the long history of English literature, there have been many prominent female writersJane Austen’s 1775-1817 humor, Bront? sisters’ romance and passion, and Virginia Woolf’s 1882-1941 profundity all greatly enriched the brilliant treasure of English literature. In modern English literature, there are still many talented female writers. In this period, the writers attempt to explore and present the living and mental states of human beings, especially those of their contemporaries, by using new experimental techniques. Their versatility and innovative writing techniques become an indispensable part of splendid modern literatureAmong them, A. S. Byatt is a shining star. She wins international reputation as a distinguished critic as well as a novelist and is regarded as one of the most significant and intellectual contemporary women novelists A. S. Byatt was born Antonia Susan Drabble on 24th August 1936, in Sheffield, Lincolnshire, to John Drabble and Kathleen Drabble. Both of her parents had “better themselves” through education and had graduated from Cambridge University. Her father was a judge and a writer, and her mother was a middle school teacher before getting married. The family was rich in books and cultural atmosphere which cultivated the children’s minds and paved the way for the success of their literary achievements. A. S. Byatt had two sisters and a little brother. Margaret Drabble, the elder sister, was a distinguished modern novelist and the younger one was an artist, and the little brother was a lawyer like his father. Her family structure is extremely similar to that of Bront?’s. A. S. Byatt once claimed that she was “kept alive by fiction”. When she was ten, she spent a lot of time in bed before recovering from an On the Indeterminacy in A. S. Byatt’s Novel Possession2 illness. During this period she developed the habit of reading which cultivated her diversified interests. She could apply the knowledge of biology, history, philosophy and other fields to her literary creation. At the age of 13, Byatt and her sister were sent to Mount School, a Quaker boarding school in York, England, where she began writing seriously. Later, she attended the Newnham College, Cambridge and obtained a degree in English literature, which was extraordinarily attractive because the ratio of male students to female students was 10:1 in Cambridge at that time. In 1957, Byatt graduated from Cambridge University with a B. Adegree. Then she taught American and English literature in London University after two years’ further study. In 1983, she retired and began to concentrate on writing with full timeByatt experienced two marriages and had three children. At the beginning of her career, she was married to Ian Byatt, an economist. They had two children, Antonia and Charles. In 1969, she married her second husband Peter Duffy, an investment analyst Most of Byatt’s works are on literature and academic activities and the characters in the books are often intellectuals. In 1964, Byatt’s first novel The Shadow of the Sun was published. It depicts an intelligent teenage girl ? Anna Severell, whose father is an outstanding novelist. Under her father’s strong influence, she always has a sense of depressionShe endeavors to fight against the great impact her father’s talent and personality had on her and finds something of her own. In 1986, Byatt’s second novel The Game was published. It is about the two sisters’ competition in writings and creative thinking, and their complex love relationship. It is a semi-autobiographical novel. Byatt was less famous than her sister Margaret at that time and was in the shadow of the latter’s fame before publishing her masterpiece Possession. In the following years, her other two books came out respectively: The Virgin in the Garden in 1978 and Still Life in 1985. Both of the novels describe the England life in the 1950s. In the two novels, the author uses many literary allusions and attempts to mix symbolism and realism together by exploring English history, cultural Introduction3 tradition and personal life. Byatt is a prolific writer. Besides the great achievements in the novels, Byatt also published some literary criticisms and short story collections. Among these critical works, the most significant ones are mainly as follows: “Degree of Freedom: The Early Novels of Iris Murch” 1965, “Iris Murch: A Critical Study” 1976, and “Unruly Times: Wordsworth and Coleridge, Poetry and Life” 1989. The highly acclaimed short stories written by Byatt include Sugar and Other Stories 1987, The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye 1994, Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice 1998 and Little Black Book of Stories 2003. In 1990, Byatt published a new novel: Possession: A Romance, which won great success immediately after its publication. The World in England once commented on Byatt and her novel: A. S. Byatt counts to be another female elite after George Eliot who is sensitive enough to keep trace of human society.? This work won the Booker Prize, the highest British literary prize, in October 1990. It has now been translated into more than sixteen languages and has been filmed by one American movie company. In short, Possession is Byatt’s most influential novel, which makes her one of the eminent British novelists0.2 A Brief Introduction to the Novel Possession Why has Possession been so successful? Byatt once said in a telephone interview, “[i]t’s like the books people used to enjoy reading when they enjoyed reading. It has a universal plot, a classic romantic plot and a classic detective plot. And the plot was more important than anything else in it. People can get the sort of pleasure out of it they got out of the old romantic novel”.? From this we can see that it is a love story and it is rather more than one love story Possession tells a story of two contemporary literary scholars ? Roland Michell and Maud Baily. Roland is an expert in the study of an outstanding Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash and is employed as a part-time research assistant to Professor Blackadder in the? ////0>. ? ////. On the Indeterminacy in A. S. Byatt’s Novel Possession4 so-called “Ash Factory”. Roland is in charge of collecting the poems and personal life materials of Ash. One day during the collection in the London Library, he accidentally finds a love letter and the unknown woman whom Ash wrote to is likely to be the famous Victorian woman poet LaMotte. He keenly senses that there might be a love affair between the two poets. Making up his mind to investigate into it thoroughly, Roland visits a feminist critic Maud who is a young expert researching LaMotte. They cooperate with each other and begin the literary exploration to trace the two famous poets’ love journey. After experiencing many difficulties, they find the abundant correspondences between the two poets and the diaries of Ellen and Glover who are Ash’s wife and LaMotte’s close friend. They also discover that the Victorian lovers produced a daughter named Maia who is Maud’s great-great-great- grandmother. For this reason, it is proved that Maud is the descendent of LaMotte. Meanwhile, the accompanied adventure of investigation cultivates a romantic love story between the two modern scholars Roland and Maud. This novel depicts not only the sufferings and pains of the Victorian poets who are in love, but also the intricate emotional changes of the modern scholars and the uneasiness and fierce struggle of the academic field. This is an experimental novel by combining the different genres together, such as poems, journals, letters, and biography writings. Therefore, it can be considered to be a love legend, a detective story as well as a literary criticism0.3 A Literature Review A. S. Byatt’s long novel Possession won the prestigious Booker Prize as the best novel published in Britain in 1990 and occupied a position on The New York Times fiction best-seller list for a long time. Meanwhile, it has drawn great attention of critics in China and many other countries. It has been more than twenty years since Possession was first published, but the momentum of the Possession scholarship has never abated. People are fascinated by the Introduction5 complicated themes, diversified genres and exquisite writing techniques of this novel. Readers and critics endeavor to interpret the delicate and profound themes from various perspectives, explore the unique narrative style, and they appreciate the poetic language of this bookAlthough this novel was introduced to China rather late, it has attracted more and more attention from Chinese scholars and readers. The criticisms offered by Chinese scholars mainly focus on five aspects in the novel, namely, ideas of feminism, historical theme, mythological elements, postmodernism and othersAs a female writer, Byatt’s feminist views implied in the novel have caught much attention of the critics. Therefore, many articles and theses from home and abroad explore this novel from the feminist perspective. In 2000, Jiang Xianwen who first made a brief introduction to A. S. Byatt and her Possession published an article with the title “A. S. Byatt’s Feminist Ideas” in Journal of Henyang Normal University. He thought that Byatt subverted the traditional man-woman relationship and believed that marriage and childbirth were the most destructive forces on women’s development. In 2003, Cheng Qian, a leading expert on Byatt, published an article entitled “Historical Narration of the True Female Life: A Feminist Reading of Byatt’s Possession” in Journal of Peking University. By analyzing the numerous female images’ existence in this novel, she made a brief comment on Byatt’s conception of female history. Later in her doctoral dissertation, she made a further study of these female figures from the historical angle. In A. S. Byatt,? Richard Todd stated that “few contemporary writers have examined both patriarchal and social attitudes to marginalized women more imaginatively than A. S. Byatt”. This study proves Byatt’s exceptional thoughts on women’s existential situationThere are some critics who have studied this novel from the historical theme. In 2008, Duan Guozhong analyzed the coexistence and the dialogue between new and old historicism? Todd, Richard. A. S. Byatt. Plymouth: Northcote House, 1997On the Indeterminacy in A. S. Byatt’s Novel Possession6 in the novel from the perspectives of both historical writing and reading in the process of historiography in his article “A Dialogue Between New and Old Historicism in Possession” published in Journal of Beijing International Studies University. Peter Prescott, in the essay “Why Byatt Possesses”,? concluded that Possession was about “the grip with which the past controls the present”Some critics focus their attention on the mythological elements of this novel. In 2002, Cheng Qian publishe