新歷史主義視角下的私人生活

1、i新歷史主義視角下的《私人生活》 新歷史主義視角下的《私人生活》摘要簡(jiǎn)· 斯邁利是美國(guó)當(dāng)代最具創(chuàng)新性和最多產(chǎn)的女性作家之一。她的第十三部小說(shuō)《私人生活》描寫了一個(gè)女人從 19 世紀(jì) 80 年代到 20 世紀(jì) 40 年代的一生，被譽(yù)為自其普利策獲獎(jiǎng)作品《一千英畝》之后最好的小說(shuō)。自 2010 年出版至今，已經(jīng)有許多解讀該小說(shuō)主題的書評(píng)。有些評(píng)論家認(rèn)為小說(shuō)描繪了一個(gè)令人心碎的婚姻—怯懦的妻子和過(guò)于自我的丈夫。另外一些評(píng)論家則認(rèn)為該

2、書譜寫了一曲對(duì)離婚權(quán)的贊歌。還有些批評(píng)家認(rèn)為小說(shuō)實(shí)為一個(gè)有關(guān)失去的故事和美國(guó)生活的寓言。此外，也有一些文章從女性主義的視角來(lái)解讀該書。但是，至今為止沒有對(duì)該小說(shuō)進(jìn)行系統(tǒng)全面解析的具有較高學(xué)術(shù)價(jià)值的論文出現(xiàn)。本文試圖通過(guò)新歷史主義視角解讀該作品以期能夠填補(bǔ)這一學(xué)術(shù)空白。新歷史主義興起于 20 世紀(jì) 80 年代初的美國(guó)，在 20 世紀(jì) 90 年代獲得廣泛影響。它反對(duì)新批評(píng)的形式主義，在分析文本時(shí)傾向于將其置于一個(gè)特定時(shí)間和地點(diǎn)的文化中。歷史

3、的文本性和文本的歷史性是新歷史主義理論中非常重要的一對(duì)概念。簡(jiǎn)單來(lái)說(shuō)，新歷史主義可以看成是對(duì)文學(xué)文本和非文學(xué)文本的平行閱讀。對(duì)新歷史主義者來(lái)說(shuō)，歷史不是一連串的事實(shí)而是一種文本或歷史敘事。文學(xué)文本也不只是作者憑空想象的產(chǎn)物而是歷史的一部分。這種對(duì)歷史和文本關(guān)系的獨(dú)特闡釋即被新歷史主義大師路易斯·蒙特羅斯定義為歷史的文本性和文本的歷史性。 《私人生活》被許多讀者認(rèn)為是一部歷史小說(shuō)，因其將半個(gè)世紀(jì)的美國(guó)歷史雜糅進(jìn)小說(shuō)情節(jié)中。所以，

4、歷史的文本性和文本的歷史性在這部作品中得到了充分的體現(xiàn)。在本文第一章中，首先從歷史的文本本質(zhì)和主觀性來(lái)解讀該小說(shuō)，其次從小說(shuō)中涉及到的歷史事件和人物以及文化兩方面來(lái)解釋文本的歷史性。權(quán)力和話語(yǔ)是新歷史主義另外一對(duì)重要的概念。在新歷史主義者看來(lái)，權(quán)力是一種無(wú)處不在的動(dòng)態(tài)存在。而話語(yǔ)大致等同于意識(shí)形態(tài)，只是前者更注重語(yǔ)言的作用。沒有任何一種話語(yǔ)可以僅憑自身就能建構(gòu)一段歷史，不同話語(yǔ)會(huì)建構(gòu)出不同版本的歷史。新歷史主義更關(guān)注于邊緣人群的話語(yǔ)。

5、《私人生活》中人物角色眾多，其中許多角色都屬于被占統(tǒng)治地位的主流階層邊緣化iiiA A A A New New New New Historical Historical Historical Historical Approach Approach Approach Approach to to to to Private Private Private Private Life Life Life LifeAbstract Abst

6、ract Abstract AbstractJane Smiley is one of the most innovative and prolific contemporary womenwriters in the United States. Her thirteenth novel Private Life chronicles a woman’slife from her early childhood in the 1880

7、s to the Second World War in the 1940s andis hailed as her best novel since her Pulitzer Prize-winning book A Thousand Acres.Published in 2010, there have been so far a number of reviews interpreting the themeof the nove

8、l. Some claim that the book is a heartbreaking portrait of marriage betweena diffident woman and a pompous man, while others regard it as a persuasive paean tothe importance of divorce. There are also certain critics ide

9、ntifying Private Life as atale of loss and a parable of American life. Besides the analyses of the novel’s theme,some articles also interpret the novel from a feminist perspective. However, there isno thesis with high ac

10、ademic value which provides a comprehensive analysis of thebook.This paper tries to fill the academic gap by adopting the New Historicalperspective to analyze this enthralling novel. New Historicism emerged in the early1

11、980s in the United States and gained widespread influence in the 1990s. It opposesthe formalism of New Criticism and conceives of a literary text as situated withinnon-literary texts of the institutions, social practices

12、 and discourses that constitute theculture of a particular time and place. The textuality of history and the historicity ofthe text are one important pair of concepts of New Historicism. New Historicism canbe simply defi

13、ned as a parallel reading of literary texts and non-literary texts. For itsexponents history is actually a text or historical narrative instead of a series of facts,while the literary text to some degree is part of histo

14、ry rather than a mere product ofthe pure imagination of the author. This unique understanding of the relationshipbetween history and the text is defined by the guru of this literary theory LouisMontrose as the textuality