我以我心荐轩辕：解读哈金小说的元历史性
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摘要
本论文旨在探讨作家哈金的历史情结和他十余部作品中一贯的关于当代中国的历史叙事。我的论文主题是:解读哈金作品为元历史小说(Metahistorical Fiction);区别于琳达·哈契(Linda Hutcheon)解读后现代小说而得出的史学性元小说(Historiographic Metafiction)。由于篇幅所限,笔者主要选取哈金的三部长篇小说《战废品》,《等待》和《疯狂》作三章来讨论。理由在于三部小说均为作者有代表性的重要作品,而且将三部小说叙事的历史背景连接起来即可基本构成整个当代中国历史的风云变迁。哈金早期赋予自身的“代言人”身份和该身份引起的持久的笔伐争议是我思考其历史叙事合法性的肇始和论文写作的切入点。哈金阐释的由康拉德和纳博科夫开启的移民作家英语写作传统和海登·怀特(Hayden White)的元历史理论(Metahistory)是提领该论文理论参照。而各章节在分析每一部小说叙事特点和具体的理论运用上各有其相对的独立性。
第一章运用E.L. Doctorow关于虚构和历史的真实性的理论阐述《伪造文书》(”False Document”)来分析小说《战废品》中再现的抗美援朝战争时期中国战俘的历史记忆。第二章主要分析小说《等待》中爱情故事和历史叙事的互文并置来探讨个人追求与历史背景的关系。第三章意在运用R.D Laing的《The Divided Self: An Existential Study of Sanity and Madness》和Erich Fromm的《The Sane Society》分析小说《疯狂》中借“癫狂者”之口叙述历史。哈金在其写作主题转型的纠结过程里否定自己前期“代言人”身份。笔者于后记中就此主题矛盾和哈金开始涉及的身份认同政治学(The Politics of Identity)亦有探讨,认为他期望摆脱其备受争议的“代言人”角色而转变为一个华裔美国作家。
正如怀特分析总结的西方十九世纪史学(Historiography)和历史哲学(Philosophy of History)的各种历史认知和书写方式,窃以为该论文的意义在于通过分析哈金以其中国经验为素材写就的小说发掘其叙写历史的客观意图并提出以一种客观,包容和多元的态度观照另一种历史书写的可能性。
This thesis aims at exploring the representation of contemporary Chinese history in Ha Jin’s works. For this study I selected three novels out of Ha Jin’s dozen works, namely War Trash, Waiting and The Crazed, and I would put forward my main argument as Reading Ha Jin’s Novels as Metahistorical Fiction (to distinguish it from Linda Hutcheon’s Historiographical Metafiction, a term derived from her discussion of postmodern fiction). The choices of these three novels are due to my conception that they are not only representatives of Ha Jin’s corpus but their historical backgrounds constitute almost the entire landscape of contemporary Chinese history from the early 50s to the early 90s.
The thesis started off by discussing the controversy of Ha Jin’s role of the spokesmanship which he claimed in the early years of his literary career. Hayden White’s theory of metahistory is introduced as a theoretical framework for the thesis, whereas in each chapter I use other specific theories and criticisms to analyze the historical narratives therein. Therefore, the three chapters stand relatively independent as they remain in the metahistorical context. In the Epilogue, I briefly discussed Ha Jin’s two recent works of immigrant experience, i.e. A Free Life and A Good Fall, and argue for the values of his works written from the spokesmanship which he later set about to negate so as to take on the American subject matter.
By writing this thesis, I not only mean to point out the historical representations in Ha Jin’s works but also to demonstrate that Ha Jin sternly believes there is historical verity in his fiction and fiction too is a mode of writing history.
第一章运用E.L. Doctorow关于虚构和历史的真实性的理论阐述《伪造文书》(”False Document”)来分析小说《战废品》中再现的抗美援朝战争时期中国战俘的历史记忆。第二章主要分析小说《等待》中爱情故事和历史叙事的互文并置来探讨个人追求与历史背景的关系。第三章意在运用R.D Laing的《The Divided Self: An Existential Study of Sanity and Madness》和Erich Fromm的《The Sane Society》分析小说《疯狂》中借“癫狂者”之口叙述历史。哈金在其写作主题转型的纠结过程里否定自己前期“代言人”身份。笔者于后记中就此主题矛盾和哈金开始涉及的身份认同政治学(The Politics of Identity)亦有探讨,认为他期望摆脱其备受争议的“代言人”角色而转变为一个华裔美国作家。
正如怀特分析总结的西方十九世纪史学(Historiography)和历史哲学(Philosophy of History)的各种历史认知和书写方式,窃以为该论文的意义在于通过分析哈金以其中国经验为素材写就的小说发掘其叙写历史的客观意图并提出以一种客观,包容和多元的态度观照另一种历史书写的可能性。
This thesis aims at exploring the representation of contemporary Chinese history in Ha Jin’s works. For this study I selected three novels out of Ha Jin’s dozen works, namely War Trash, Waiting and The Crazed, and I would put forward my main argument as Reading Ha Jin’s Novels as Metahistorical Fiction (to distinguish it from Linda Hutcheon’s Historiographical Metafiction, a term derived from her discussion of postmodern fiction). The choices of these three novels are due to my conception that they are not only representatives of Ha Jin’s corpus but their historical backgrounds constitute almost the entire landscape of contemporary Chinese history from the early 50s to the early 90s.
The thesis started off by discussing the controversy of Ha Jin’s role of the spokesmanship which he claimed in the early years of his literary career. Hayden White’s theory of metahistory is introduced as a theoretical framework for the thesis, whereas in each chapter I use other specific theories and criticisms to analyze the historical narratives therein. Therefore, the three chapters stand relatively independent as they remain in the metahistorical context. In the Epilogue, I briefly discussed Ha Jin’s two recent works of immigrant experience, i.e. A Free Life and A Good Fall, and argue for the values of his works written from the spokesmanship which he later set about to negate so as to take on the American subject matter.
By writing this thesis, I not only mean to point out the historical representations in Ha Jin’s works but also to demonstrate that Ha Jin sternly believes there is historical verity in his fiction and fiction too is a mode of writing history.
引文
Chen, Aimin.“Claim for Existence in Another Language: An Interview with Ha Jin.”Foreign Literature Studies. 3 (2008): 1-4.
Cheung, King-kok. Articulate Silences: Hisaye Yamamoto, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joy Kogawa. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1993.
Doctorow. E.L. Jack London, Hemingway, and the Constitution: Selected Essays: 1977-1992. New York: Random House, 1993.
Felman, Shoshana. Writing and Madness (Literature/Psychology/Psychoanalysis). Tran. Martha Noel Evans and Shoshana Felman. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2003.
Feuerwerker Yi-Tsi Mei.“Text, Intertext, and the Representation of the Writing Self in Lu Xun, Yu Dafu, and Wang Meng.”From May Fourth to June Fourth: Fiction and Film in Twentieth-Century China. Ed. Ellen Widmer and David Der-wei Wang. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 1993. 167-193.
Fromm, Erich. The Sane Society. London and New York: Routledge Classics, 2002.
Ha Jin. Waiting. New York: Pantheon Books, 1999.
——. The Crazed. New York: Pantheon Books, 2002.
——. War Trash. New York: Vintage Books, 2004.
——. A Free Life. New York: Pantheon Books, 2007.
——. The Writer as Migrant. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2008.
——. A Good Fall. New York: Pantheon Books, 2009.
——.“In Defense of Foreignness.”keynote address presented at Brown University for the Conference–Reassessing the Foreign Language Curriculum in the Age of Globalization, on April 4, 2008.
History Division of People’s Education Press. Chinese History. Beijing: People’s Education Press, 2002. Vol.4.
Hutcheon, Linda.“Historiographic Metafiction: Parody and the Intertextuality of History.”Intertextuality and Contemporary American Fiction. Ed. P. O’Donnel and Robert Con Davis. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. 3-32.
Laing, R.D. The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. London: Penguin Books, 1990.
Lee, Leo Oufan.“Afterword: Reflections on Change and Continuity in Modern Chinese Fiction.”From May Fourth to June Fourth: Fiction and Film in Twentieth-Century China. Ed. Ellen Widmer and David Der-wei Wang. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 1993. 361-383.
Levine, Paul. Divisions. Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1975.
Lu Xun. Preface to Call to Arms. Trans. Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1980. Vol. 1 of Lu Xun Selected Works. 4 Vols.
Porter, Carolyn. Seeing and Being, The Plight of the Participation Observer in Emerson, James, Adams, and Faulkner. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 1981.
Schehr, Lawrence R. Figures of Alterity: French Realism and Its Others. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.
White, Hayden. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-century Europe. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.
Wong, Sau-ling Cynthia. Reading Asian American Literature: From Necessity to Extravagance. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Cheung, King-kok. Articulate Silences: Hisaye Yamamoto, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joy Kogawa. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1993.
Doctorow. E.L. Jack London, Hemingway, and the Constitution: Selected Essays: 1977-1992. New York: Random House, 1993.
Felman, Shoshana. Writing and Madness (Literature/Psychology/Psychoanalysis). Tran. Martha Noel Evans and Shoshana Felman. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2003.
Feuerwerker Yi-Tsi Mei.“Text, Intertext, and the Representation of the Writing Self in Lu Xun, Yu Dafu, and Wang Meng.”From May Fourth to June Fourth: Fiction and Film in Twentieth-Century China. Ed. Ellen Widmer and David Der-wei Wang. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 1993. 167-193.
Fromm, Erich. The Sane Society. London and New York: Routledge Classics, 2002.
Ha Jin. Waiting. New York: Pantheon Books, 1999.
——. The Crazed. New York: Pantheon Books, 2002.
——. War Trash. New York: Vintage Books, 2004.
——. A Free Life. New York: Pantheon Books, 2007.
——. The Writer as Migrant. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2008.
——. A Good Fall. New York: Pantheon Books, 2009.
——.“In Defense of Foreignness.”keynote address presented at Brown University for the Conference–Reassessing the Foreign Language Curriculum in the Age of Globalization, on April 4, 2008.
History Division of People’s Education Press. Chinese History. Beijing: People’s Education Press, 2002. Vol.4.
Hutcheon, Linda.“Historiographic Metafiction: Parody and the Intertextuality of History.”Intertextuality and Contemporary American Fiction. Ed. P. O’Donnel and Robert Con Davis. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. 3-32.
Laing, R.D. The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. London: Penguin Books, 1990.
Lee, Leo Oufan.“Afterword: Reflections on Change and Continuity in Modern Chinese Fiction.”From May Fourth to June Fourth: Fiction and Film in Twentieth-Century China. Ed. Ellen Widmer and David Der-wei Wang. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 1993. 361-383.
Levine, Paul. Divisions. Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1975.
Lu Xun. Preface to Call to Arms. Trans. Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1980. Vol. 1 of Lu Xun Selected Works. 4 Vols.
Porter, Carolyn. Seeing and Being, The Plight of the Participation Observer in Emerson, James, Adams, and Faulkner. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 1981.
Schehr, Lawrence R. Figures of Alterity: French Realism and Its Others. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.
White, Hayden. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-century Europe. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.
Wong, Sau-ling Cynthia. Reading Asian American Literature: From Necessity to Extravagance. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993.