摘要
《英国病人》是加拿大著名作家迈克尔·翁达杰的杰出代表作品,1992年获得英国小说最高奖项-布克奖,根据原著改编的同名电影《英国病人》,更是获得了1996年奥斯卡金像奖的9项大奖。小说以二战为背景,战争将世界炸的不再完整,同时也将一部文学作品炸成了碎片。这部融合了爱情,战争,历史,神秘色彩的小说是文学史上的一朵奇葩。这部震撼人心的作品在描述历史和过去的同时也惊醒当今世界的人们,世界上没有一个低劣的民族也没有一个优越的国家,世界没有一个统一的中心,所有的人们都以不同的方式平等地生活在同一个世界。本文将用解构主义理论来探寻和分析小说中的中心是如何缺失的。
“解构(deconstruction)”一词,德里达最初是从美国建筑师彼得·艾森曼关于建筑的文本中接触到的。在文学分析中,解构主义则是对具有“中心”的结构加以解构,消解中心和本源,颠覆形而上学的二元对立观,对统一性、确定性加以思想解构,以突出差异性和不确定性。德里达的解构是对于一切教条的解构,它不是一个概念。解构主义的基本精神是反对二元对立,否定终极意义,拒斥形而上学,为新的写作方式和阅读方式开辟了广泛的可能性。也为文学批评提供了理论支柱。
本论文共分三个部分。在第一部分,笔者对所研究的作品,作家以及国内外对小说研究的现状进行了简要介绍,为以后论证做好铺垫,也为提出论点埋下伏笔。第二部分是论文的主体部分共四章,第一章对德里达的解构主义及其中心意义进行介绍,为下一步的论点阐释打下基础,提供理论依据。第二章,笔者重点对小说中心缺失的第一个现象即作者不在场现象进行了分析。第三章,笔者对传统二元对立观进行了解构分析。第四章,在对小说的解构分析基础上,本文作者对小说中的多元主题进行了重构。在论文的第三部分,论文作者得出最后结论,即:《英国病人》中中心的缺失显示出解构主义的痕迹,解构主义理论在小说中的运用在很大程度上造就了小说在现实意义与艺术表现方面的价值。在给读者带来现实与艺术欣赏价值的同时,小说中心的缺失表现出的深刻社会意义也令我们深思。
希望此文能为读者打开一扇新的阅读之窗,去重新审视这部文坛巨著,并且从新的理论视角去思考和挖掘潜藏在作品背后更深层次的理论意义和现实价值;在用解构主义揭开小说神秘面纱的同时也希望此文能为《英国病人》的深入研究尽一份微薄之力。
The English Patient which won the highest prize for English novels--Booker Prize in 1992 is a masterpiece of the Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje’s. Based on the original novel, the movie The English Patient got nine Oscar awards in 1996, which promoted the novel’s reputation in the literary world. The English Patient is set in the WWII when the bombs exploded the world into pieces. Meanwhile, this literature work is in fragments through which Michael Ondaatje manages to create a peaceful world. This great novel depicts history and at the same time warns the world that there is no absolute domination, hegemony and supremacy; there is no centre in the world in which everyone lives equally and freely without boundaries. This thesis will explore and analyze how the centre disappears in this novel from a deconstructive perspective.
The French philosopher Jacques Derrida got the word“deconstruction”originally from a text about architecture.“Deconstruction”is to break the existing modular order, not only the social order but also the ideological order such as habits of writing, receiving, and thinking, and the unconscious national character developed in the process of cultural bearing in people’s inner world. Deconstruction wants to break these orders and create more reasonable orders.
The concept of binary opposition is to a great extent the basis of the Structural theory. Nevertheless, in the concept of deconstruction, reversing the factitious antithetical ranks forms the basis of deconstruction whose fundamental idea is to oppose duality, negate the ultimate, and refuse metaphysics, providing a broad possibility for new writing and reading styles and a theoretical cornerstone for literature criticism.
This thesis consists of three parts. The first part is mainly about the introduction of the novel The English Patient, its author Michael Ondaatje and current researches about this novel home and abroad; the second part is the body of this thesis, in which chapter one introduces Derrida’s deconstruction theory and its explanation and interpretation of“center”which provides a theoretical ground for further studies; chapter two analyses the absence of the author; chapter three is the deconstruction of traditional binary opposition and chapter four reconstructs multi-dimensional themes. In the last part, a conclusion is drawn that the disappearance of center in The English Patient represents the basic theory of deconstruction which to a great extent establishes the reputation of this great novel both in realistic significance and artistic expression.
The thesis is produced with a hope to open a new window for the readers to reread this great and significant novel in the literature world, also to explore the deep underlying theoretical meaning and practical values from new theoretical perspectives, and to make a contribution to the further study of The English Patient while the profoundly mysterious deconstruction is unveiled.
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