【作者】 叶明珠；

【导师】 郭军；

【作者基本信息】 华中师范大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2006， 硕士

【摘要】 《我弥留之际》是美国南方作家福克纳于1930年的杰作。它通过叙述一家人荒诞而又艰难的送葬过程,刻画了一群思想幻灭与精神疏离的现代人形象,呈现给我们一个充斥着通奸、兄弟反目、弑父和背叛的“荒原”社会。这样一个主题意象的最终意图是表达出作者对现代社会中人的异化状态和生存困境的思考。由此,福克纳的文学关注也正如二十世纪现代派作家的关注一样,都是通过文学作品反思现代社会中的种种弊病。 但是作为20世纪杰出的文体学家和小说家,福克纳表现这个主题的艺术手法却是独到的。与乔伊斯的“交错式”意识流的表现手法不同,福克纳采用了“复合式”意识流的表现手法,即通过不同性格、不同遭遇、不同动机的人物的意识流动来叙述同一个故事,这样使得故事内容更加集中,使得读者更能关注同样的事件在不同人的内心产生的影响。如在《我弥留之际》中,他通过15个叙述者的59章叙述展现出多视角的叙事,而这种手法不仅能让读者全方位地了解人物的心态,更是从形式上表现了异化状态,因为这个叙事角度使得每个叙述者都是封闭的个体,都是精神上的“异化”人。由此,福克纳真正做到了现代派所追求的以“显现”(show)替代“讲述”(tell)的艺术效果。 这种艺术追求使得福克纳的主题与形式是不可割裂的一个整体,也即是说,他的主题正是借助他的叙事而彰显出来,而形式本身也由此变成了内容的一部分,所以,解读福克纳的小说必须通过研究其独特的叙事结构而最终理解其深刻而独特的社会文化意蕴。 本文作者尝试从格雷马斯的语义方阵出发分析《我弥留之际》的叙事结构,了解故事中主要语义素的对立关系,进而解读其中蕴含的深层意义。在该小说中,死与生的对立是故事的基本线索,水与火是故事发展的辅助因素。这四个语义素相互之间的对立关系以及语义素的动态发展使故事产生了丰富的内涵。通过对故事中“生”这一意象的缺失和父母角色错位的分析使人物关系及其背后的深刻含义清晰明了,进而揭示蕴含于小说中的深层主题。也正因为运用了格雷马斯的叙事语法,才能从浩繁的叙述者、叙事事件中“剥茧抽丝”,找寻出其中的异化主题。 事实上,将叙事结构作为一种手法引入小说分析的先例并不少见,从叙事技巧上对小说进行分析的范例也是比比皆是。但是,长久以来从叙事技巧入手的研究往往容易陷入纯形式的文本分析,忽视了对叙事主体、叙事主题的挖掘,抹杀了叙事更多还原

【Abstract】 As I Lay Dying, which was published in 1930, is one of the masterpieces of William Faulkner, an American writer. Through the depiction of an absurd and arduous adventure of the burial of Mrs. Bundren’s corpse in her family’s cemetery forty miles away, the novel exhibits a group of disillusioned and self-estranged characters, and presents a wasteland flooded with problems of adultery, sibling rivalry, patricide and betrayal. Just in this way, it shows Faulkner’s concern over the modern man’s plights and sufferings from alienation, which is consistent with other modern writers’ in the 20th century.As a great experimentalist in writing skills, Faulkner explores man’s inner thoughts by attempting such new writing devices as stream of consciousness. Distinct from Joyce, whose characters seldom narrate the same thing in interior monologues, Faulkner portrays numerous individuals who are completely different in characters, experiences and motives to show their different reactions to the same incident, which makes the plot of the novel well-knit. For example, in As I Lay Dying, he displays fifteen people’s fifty-nine interior monologues to reveal the inner world of every character. Just by applying this multi-voiced narrative, Faulkner not only endows all the readers with an overall picture of the unconscious but also underscores the novel’s theme of alienation and isolation, since every character is essentially isolated from the others spiritually and internally. In this way, he succeeds in his pursuit: to "show" rather than to "tell".Faulkner’s artistic pursuit ensures the integrity and inseparability of his theme and form. In other words, his theme is displayed from his unique narrative form to the extent. Therefore, in reading Faulkner’s narrative, it is required to study the narrative structure of his novel and then, get a better understanding of his cultural connotation.A. J. Greimas’ theory of "semantic rectangle" is applied to analyze the narrative structure of As I Lay Dying and the well-knit relationship among the semantic semes so as to exhibit Faulkner’s perpetual subject of alienation. In the novel, the conflict between "death" and "life" is the basic conflict in the story while "flood" and "fire" work as the auxiliary factors for the development of the plot. The binary oppositions among the four semes in the narrative structure and the dynamic movement of the semes have elicited various interpretations of the story. Accordingly, an analysis of the "absence" and the"dislocation" in its narrative structure could clarify the complicated relationships among the characters and their symbolic meanings;and then, make us have a better understanding of Faulkner’s perennial attention on the alienated subject.It is frequently seen to study novels from the perspective of narrative structure, especially through employing narrative skills in the analysis. However, traditional studies from the perspective of narrative structure are inclined to overlook the themes, and obliterate novels’ social and cultural significance. This thesis holds that only when narrative studies integrate with cultural studies, can text analysis jump out of the studies on the dry linguistic signs and be the reflection of modern life.This thesis is composed of six chapters altogether. To start with, the introductory chapter provides all the available literature on the studies of As I Lay Dying, especially a review on the studies from the perspective of narrative structure. The review shows that most scholars notice the writing skills in As I Lay Dying and some also claim that the Bundrens are lonely persons in the wasteland. However, they eventually fail to integrate the novel’s theme hidden in the narrative structure with Faulkner’s social background. This thesis holds that Faulkner’s religious ideas, humanitarian ideology and the long-term concern over man’s plight are the causes of his narrative skills. Chapter two of the thesis gives a brief introduction of Greimas’ semantic rectangle and the way it works. Chapter three discusses its application in As I Lay Dying and interprets two prominent cases in the semantic rectangle: the absence of seme "life" and the dislocation of parental roles. Then, different types of alienation from God, nature and society are elucidated separately in the next chapter, with Faulkner’s life background taken into consideration. Chapter five discusses the social causes of modern man’s alienation. The decline of religious belief, the decline of humanitarianism after the World War, and the dehumanization of modernity determine Faulkner’s concern over man’s plight, especially modern man’s spiritual predicament. The last chapter is a conclusion based on the previous analysis. Modern man is suffering from alienation to a certain extent and the most important source of alienation comes from the society itself. Only when modern society endows every person with rights to live gracefully and dignifiedly, can modern man enjoy eternal happiness.更多还原