巴塞尔姆《白雪公主》的毁灭性美学

Abstract

作为二十世纪美国杰出的作家，唐纳德·巴塞尔姆拥有各种各样的头衔：前卫先锋，拼贴大师，文学极简主义者，达达主义艺术家，存在主义者，后现代主义艺术家。然而，即使是粗略地重读一遍他的作品，我们都会发现以上的任何一个头衔都不够完整与贴切。有一点没有歧议，巴塞尔姆首先应当是一位出色的小说家，但笔者认为他同时也是一位卓越的、具有创新意识的审美学家，因为他总是试图在小说创作中发现并且构建独特的艺术美。 纵观巴塞尔姆的一生，他建立的小说世界里包括了四部长篇小说和八部短篇小说集。《白雪公主》是他的第一部长篇小说，同时，该作品也被认为是他通过小说创作展现自己美学观点的一次早期尝试。虽然，巴塞尔姆的《白雪公主》可以说是对经典童话的戏仿，但在这部作品中，它的童话主题却荡然无存。整部小说大量地充斥着碎片式的情节，不明身份的叙述者总是试图通过荒诞不经的话语来表现自我，形成一幅幅口头拼贴画，因为在这部小说中语言被故意地剥离了它传统的含意，它只是起着作为物的功效。如同其它后现代主义艺术作品,《白雪公主》体现了形式超越内容的特点，也体现了艺术家的人格是其作品风格的主导因素这一思想。为什么巴塞尔姆要在小说创作中进行如此的革新呢？因为在他看来，后现代社会中的语言已不能再有效地传达信息；话语已失去使读者感动和产生兴趣的功能；现实也不可能再为虚构世界提供支持；总之，任何形式的传统叙事手段都是令人质疑的。所以，他试图利用新的手段来解决语言文字衰退与僵化的问题。这种新手段就是某些评论家所说的“毁灭性美学”。 “毁灭性美学”这个术语第一次出现在评论家杰弗里· 尼伦（Jeffrey T Nealon）的论文“毁灭性美学：巴塞尔姆<白雪公主>中的讽刺、道德与性别”之中。然而，笔者在本论文中引用“毁灭性美学”这个术语的目的与尼伦完全不同。尼伦主要是对《白雪公主》讽刺的应用进行评论，而本论文试图分析巴塞尔姆革命性的创作美学，这是他在当今破碎的世界中为文学创作寻找出路的一次新的尝试。因此，本文所说的“毁灭性美学”是指巴塞尔姆革命性的创作美学思想，它彻底废除了传统的、生硬的美学价值体系和道德说教，其目的在于生动地再现赤裸裸的、充满血腥的后现代社会。 为了探寻巴塞尔姆的毁灭性创作美学思想，本篇论文试图从以下几章进行探讨：“导言”部分对国内外有关《白雪公主》的评论作了综述并简单介绍了故事梗概。第一章论述了巴塞尔姆美学思想的形成，包括其特殊的家庭背景、良好的学校教育、朋友和老师的影响以及他不断演变的哲学观点和宗教信仰。所有这些都是巴塞尔姆美学观点形成的重要因素。第二章到第四章为本文的主体，详细论述了巴塞尔姆在《白雪公主》中所表现出的毁灭性创作美学思想。第二章主要探讨他对传统美学思想的反叛，他以自己的怀疑精神和敏锐的洞察力挑战传统美学。第三章通过分析“无知”、文字游戏和荒谬在《白雪公主》中的应用来进一步阐述巴塞尔姆的毁灭性美学。第四章聚焦于小说的结构。小说中破碎的话语、断裂的句法以及混乱的叙述模式，再现巴塞尔姆在小说创作中独特的美学观点。“结语” 部分通过分析读者在这部小说中获得的审美体验来再次印证巴塞尔姆作品中的美学价值。事实上，他的毁灭性美学的本质内涵是：艺术的价值在于它能让人们在残酷的现实面前获得短暂的审美愉悦。这也许就是读者怀念他、后辈作家推崇他的写作风格的原因吧。

Donald Barthelme, an American writer in the twentieth century, is variously labeled as an avant-courier, a collagist, a minimalist, a Dadaist, an existentialist, and a postmodernist. However, even a cursory rereading of his works would make none of these titles complete or exact. Nevertheless, one thing is sure that he is first of all an excellent novelist and, at the same time, a preeminent aesthetician with consciousness of revolution, for he always attempts to find and create unique beauty in novel writing. During Barthelme’s whole life, he constructs a fictional realm which is made up of four novels and eight collections of short stories. Snow White is his first novel and could be deemed as his early attempt of showing his position on aesthetic issues in the fictional world. Although a parody of the popular fairy tale, the subject of Barthelme’s Snow White is a hollow sham. The whole novel is composed largely of fragmented episodes in which undistinguishable characters attempt to express themselves in often nonsensical speeches and its discourse is like a verbal collage in which words are intended to contain no meaning and function as objects. Like the other works of postmodern artists, Snow White shows the domination of form over content and the recognition that the dramatization of the artist’s personality in his art may constitute a large part of work’s style. The reason for Barthelme to pursue innovations in novel writing is that he believes that language no longer communicates effectively, words have lost their power to move or amuse readers, reality is no longer capable of sustaining mythic devices, and telling traditional stories of any kind is suspected in the postmodern world. He seeks to exploit the decay of language and literature, and thinks that only by innovative novel writing could he add beauty in literary works. To be exact, he applies disastrous aesthetics to Snow White. The term “disastrous aesthetics” first appeared in “Disastrous Aesthetics: Irony, Ethics, and Gender in Barthelme's Snow White” by critic Jeffrey T Nealon, however, the purpose of “disastrous aesthetics” being quoted here is quite different from Nealon’s. Nealon offered an appreciative yet critical account of Barthelme's ironic perspective in Snow White while this thesis intends to analyze Barthelme’s novel writing aesthetics, which is an attempt for him to find a solution to face a disintegrated world without a unified principle, meaning and purpose. “Disastrous aesthetics” in this thesis means abandoning traditional abrupt value judgments and moral preachments completely. The purpose for Barthelme to apply disastrous aesthetics in Snow White is to unfold a vivid picture of the real naked and bloody postmodern life Trying to acquire Barthelme’s innovative aesthetic ideas, this thesis tends to advance the discussion in these consecutive chapters: “Introduction” reviews the criticisms of Snow White at home and abroad and gives a brief introduction to the novel. Chapter One presents Barthelme’s aesthetic background, including fine family environment, good education from school, influence from friends and excellent teachers, and his unceasingly changing philosophic views and religious beliefs, all of which are ingredients that help Barthelme form his aesthetic ideas. Chapter Two through Chapter Four constitute the main body of this thesis, focusing on the discussion of Barthelme’s disastrous aesthetics in Snow White. Chapter Two mainly probes into an analysis on his rebellion against traditional aesthetics. He challenges traditional aesthetics with his doubtful and creative insights. Chapter Three further represents his disastrous aesthetic ideas by analyzing the application of ideas concerning “not-knowing,” “wordplay” and “absurdity.” Chapter Four shifts to the discussion of his aesthetics ideas through a structural analysis of this novel. He makes his works regain aesthetic depth by reconstructing the conventional structure of fiction, including disrupted discourse, reprimanded syntax and chaotic narrative structure. “Conclusion,” briefly exemplifies the aesthetic value Barthelme has achieved in this novel from the aesthetic experience of readers. His disastrous aesthetics actually suggests that art is valuable simply because it gives man a chance to create a space in which the deadening effects of ordinary cruel living can be momentarily aesthetic bliss and this might be the reason why he is always remembered by his readers and admired by the writers to come.

学位：文学硕士

院系专业：外文学院英语语言文学系_外国语言学及应用语言学

学号：20051300338