【作者】 佘军；

【导师】 朱新福；

【作者基本信息】 苏州大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2013， 博士

【摘要】 美国新现实主义小说是20世纪70年代开始出现的一个重要的当代美国小说创作形式。20世纪60年代末,美国的后现代小说实验风潮急转直下,小说创作面临继续实验和回归传统的选择。在小说创作的十字路口,当代美国小说家纷纷重新关注社会现实,借鉴现实主义创作模式,但不完全照搬传统现实主义小说创作的技巧和手段,而是联接传统现实主义小说风格与后现代主义小说创作技巧。一批年轻小说家也积极参与此种创作模式。结果,在后现代主义新阶段形成一种类似传统现实主义风格但又具有后现代主义特征的现实主义小说形式——新现实主义小说,也有人称其为后现代现实主义小说。经过四十多年的发展,新现实主义小说成为当代美国小说创作的主要类型。国内外学界对美国新现实主义小说的现有研究主要局限于这一小说形式的名称界定和聚焦个别作家小说创作的新现实主义特征。本论文从创作题材、主题、人物塑造、叙事特征以及批评空间和经典构建等方面详细考察美国新现实主义小说,揭示新现实主义小说是当代美国小说创作在传统和实验之间的第三条重要路径。论文由七个部分组成。绪论部分介绍美国新现实主义小说在我国和英美等国的研究现状,述评和归纳国内外已有研究。以此为基础,论文对美国新现实主义小说进行界定,指出研究美国新现实主义小说的重要性,并提出研究目的、主要观点、研究思路和创新之处。第一章论述美国新现实主义小说创作题材的三个重要层面。以科学技术和消费主义为特征的后现代社会生活是美国新现实主义小说的主要题材之一。20世纪70年代以来,美国社会和民众生活方式的转型对当代美国小说创作产生直接影响,一批小说家在创作中着重表现科学技术迅猛发展和消费主义思想蔓延对民众生活的影响,再现当代美国社会现实。历史与虚构轶事也是美国新现实主义小说创作题材的重要内容。美国新现实主义小说家将目光投向过去,以美国历史上的真实人物和事件为基础,重塑或者虚构历史人物,重构美国历史片段,以此观照当代美国社会现实,参与意识形态构建。美国新现实主义小说创作的第三个重要题材是当代美国民众的精神和道德世界。当代美国社会虽然总体稳定,但信仰危机、政治危机、环境和生态危机、婚姻和家庭危机、恐怖主义威胁以及各种恐慌无不侵蚀民众的精神世界,道德出现滑坡。新现实主义小说创作揭示了上述危机对人们精神和道德世界的影响,旨在重塑健康的精神生态。第二章论述美国新现实主义小说的重要主题。后现代美国民众的存在焦虑与恐惧、历史虚构的另一种真实和美国式家庭符号的消解是美国新现实主义小说的三个重要主题。与后现代实验小说在主题方面回避现实和历史而重视自我不同,新现实主义小说的主题与当代美国社会现实和历史紧密联系。美国新现实主义小说家着重从现实和历史两个维度思考困扰当代美国民众的后现代问题,再现民众的存在焦虑和恐惧、历史的真实和后现代时期民众的个体关系状态。第三章研究美国新现实主义小说的人物概念和人物刻画艺术。美国新现实主义小说中的主要人物大多是内在和外在特征同时兼具的大写的“人”。新现实主义小说家一反后现代实验小说家削弱小说人物塑造重要性的做法,着重塑造外在特征明显、内心世界丰富的小说人物,实现人物概念对传统现实主义小说的“外在人”(外在特征逼真但缺乏立体感)、现代主义小说的“内在人”(以人格层面存在)和后现代实验小说的“平面人”(以符号和影子的形式存在)的超越。新现实主义小说刻画的小说人物既有底层社会濒临绝望的普通民众,也有中产阶级阶层陷于信仰和家庭危机的社会中流砥柱人物,还有处于文化夹缝的少数族裔,更有展现生活风貌另一面的历史人物和当代社会精英等等。这些人物形象透射出美国新现实主义小说的人物塑造和刻画艺术。第四章主要探讨美国新现实主义小说的叙事特征。新现实主义小说延续了传统现实主义小说的地域叙事传统,着重从种族社区、国际化都市、西部和边境等地域书写以文化多元化为背景的“后现代美国之书”。在叙事结构上,新现实主义小说巧妙缝合传统现实主义小说的完整性情节和后现代实验小说的碎片式拼贴技巧,凸显小说的故事性,兼顾传统与后现代实验,形成独特的小说结构艺术。在小说语言维度上,美国新现实主义小说的叙事语言既不是传统现实主义小说家眼中的“一扇透明的窗户”,也不是后现代实验小说家笔下的绝对游戏主体,而是成功扮演了修辞性主体的重要角色,凸显小说主题、叙事真实性和人物的典型特征。第五章论述美国新现实主义小说的批评空间和经典构建。美国新现实主义小说的出现正值欧陆文学批评理论大举涌入美国的时期,新现实主义小说在美国的发展除却社会历史原因之外还受到文学批评环境的影响。当代美国的文学批评状况演变拓展了新现实主义小说的批评空间,尤其是深化了新现实主义小说的文外批评空间,为新现实主义小说批评提供了理论话语。而新现实主义小说在文本形式上从传统现实主义小说、现代主义小说和后现代实验小说汲取多种因素、实现超越的过程促使当代美国的文学批评重视从文学审美艺术的角度研究文学作品的形式。同时,美国新现实主义小说的经典构建既与新现实主义小说自身的创作品质相关,也离不开当代美国的文学批评。最后,论文在结语部分指出新现实主义小说之所以成为一个倍受关注的当代美国小说形式,既有社会历史和文化原因,也是小说艺术发展规律的自然结果。20世纪70年代以来美国的社会、政治、经济和文化环境为新现实主义小说培育了良好的成长温床一一后现代消费主义思潮、后现代的科技文明、当代美国政治以及后现代多元文化等等。小说的发展离不开现实主义传统。从传统现实主义小说到现代主义小说,再到后现代实验小说,然后再到新现实主义小说,小说艺术的发展证明小说必须连接社会现实,一定的叙事技巧组织可以为小说增添讲故事和反映现实的艺术效果。总之,在传统和后现代实验之间,新现实主义小说已成为当代美国小说创作的第三条路径,呈现了当代美国小说创作的深度转向：关注现实、道德批评和思考存在。更多还原

【Abstract】 American neorealist fiction has become an important type of contemporary American fiction since it appeared in the1970s. When postmodern experimentalist fiction lost its charm and attraction at the end of the1960s, there were two roads lying ahead of American writers-furthering the postmodern experimentation or returning to the traditional mode of fiction writing. Many American writers, at the crossroads of novel writing, began to pay close attention to societal reality and return to the mode of realistic fiction writing. However, they didn’t copy the writing techniques of traditional realist writers; instead, they combined the realist style and postmodern writing skills. Many young novelists participated in this type of fiction writing fashion. As a result, there appeared a new form of fiction-neorealist fiction, which displays the features of both realistic and postmodern fictions. Some critics call this new type of fiction postmodern realistic fiction. In the past forty years, neorealist fiction has developed into the main type of contemporary American fiction.The current study of American neorealist fiction at home and abroad is mainly limited to the discussion of the name of this new type of fiction and focuses on neorealist features in some contemporary American fiction. Focusing on the subject matter, themes, characterization, narrating technique, space of criticism and canonization, this dissertation aims to make a systematic study of American neorealist fiction and points out American neorealist fiction has become a third approach of fiction writing between the traditional and experimental fictions.This dissertation is composed of seven sections. The introductory chapter reviews and summarizes the current academic study of American neorealist fiction. On the basis of it, the dissertation puts forward a definition of American neorealist fiction, demonstrates the significance of its study, and introduces the research purposes, viewpoints, approaches and innovative insights. Chapter One expounds three important aspects of the subject matter in American neorealist fiction. The postmodern society characterized with science, technology and consumerism becomes an important aspect of the subject matter. Since the1970s, the transition of American society and the public life style has exerted direct influences on contemporary American fiction writing. A group of novelists have devoted to depicting the effects of the rapid development of science and technology and the spread of consumerism on the public life. The reality of contemporary American society is vividly presented in this way. History and fictional anecdotes constitute another aspect of the subject matter. Based on the real historical figures and events, American neorealist novelists re-create or fabricate historical figures, and re-construct American historical moments so as to reflect American societal reality and participate in the ideology construction. The third aspect of the subject matter centers on the spiritual and moral world of contemporary Americans. American society has been comparatively stable; however, the crises of faith, politics, environment, ecology, marriage and family, the threat of terrorism, and various kinds of terrors erode the spiritual world of the public, which inevitably causes the moral deterioration. Neorealist writers expose in their writings the effects of those crises on people’s mind for the purpose of calling for the consciousness of reconstructing American people’s spiritual ecology.Chapter Two discusses the themes of American neorealist fiction. Contemporary Americans’ worries about existence, the truth of historical fabrication, and the dissolving of American-style family constitute three significant themes of American neorealist fiction. Different from postmodern experimentalists’ evading reality and history but emphasizing selfhood, American neorealist novelists prefer to make the themes of fiction closely connected with contemporary American reality and history. They ponder over the postmodern problems obsessing contemporary American public through two dimensions of reality and history. In this way, they depict American people’s worries about existence, the truth of history and human relationships in the postmodern times.Chapter Three defines the concept of character and the characterization in American neorealist fiction. American neorealist fiction focuses on representing HUMAN BEINGs displaying internal and external characteristics. Postmodern experimental novelists tend to pay less attention to the significance of characterization. Conversely, neorealist novelists emphasize creating characters with distinctive external features and a complicated psychological world so as to surpass the "people"(possessing vivid external features yet lacking the stereoscopic effect) in traditional realistic fiction, the "personalities"(displaying layers of personalities) in modern fiction, and the "figures"(existing in the form of signs and shadows) in postmodern experimental fiction. The neorealist fiction characters range from the desperate people in the lower class, social mainstay characters in the middle-class stranded in faith and family crises, minorities deserted in the cultural crack, historical figures displaying another aspect of life, and contemporary social elitists as well. These characters reflect the art of characterization in American neorealist fiction.Chapter Four mainly studies the art of narration in American neorealist fiction. American neorealist fiction inherits the tradition of regional writing in traditional realistic fiction, focuses on minority communities, cosmopolis, American west and borders, and develops a narrative feature of "postmodern American regional writing" with multiculturalism as its background. In the aspect of narrative structure, American neorealist fiction proficiently connects the complete plot in traditional realistic fiction with the technique of collage and pastiche in postmodern experimentalist fiction, highlights the quality of storytelling in fiction, merges the features of traditional and experimental fictions, and thus forms its own unique narrative art. From the dimension of language, American neorealist fiction conveys us the impression that language in American neorealist fiction is not "a transparent window" from the perspective of traditional realistic novelists, and not a subject of word games in the eyes of postmodern experimentalists, but a subject of rhetoric which successfully displays the themes, narrative authenticity and characterization in a fiction.Chapter Five discusses the space of criticism and canonization of American neorealist fiction. American neorealist fiction rose when European continental literary theories poured into America in the1970s. Consequently, apart from social and historical factors, the flourishing of neorealist fiction in America was influenced by the atmosphere of literary criticism. The evolvement of contemporary American literary criticism expands the space of neorealist fiction study, especially deepens the extrinsic space for studying neorealist fiction, and offers important theoretical discourses to understand neorealist fiction. However, during the process of adopting and surpassing some elements from traditional realistic fiction, modern fiction and postmodern experimentalist fiction, American neorealist fiction stimulates the contemporary American literary criticism, and draws its attention to aesthetic perspectives in fiction study. Meanwhile, the canonization of American neorealist fiction is related to contemporary American literary criticism as well as the quality of American neorealist fiction.Finally, the Conclusion part points out that contemporary American history and culture, together with the law of the art of fiction, makes neorealist fiction a prevailing contemporary fiction type. Since the1970s, postmodern consumerism, postmodern civilization of science and technology, contemporary American politics and postmodern multiculturalism breed the flourishing of American neorealist fiction socially, politically, economically and culturally. The development of fiction is inseparable from the tradition of realism. From realism to modernism, postmodern experimentalism, and then to neorealism, it’s proved that the art of fiction should be connected with reality, and narrative technique can add artistic effects of storytelling and reflecting reality. In brief, between the choices of postmodern experimentation and traditional fiction writing styles, American neorealist fiction has been a third way of contemporary American fiction writing, and exhibits a profound transition of contemporary American fiction:focusing on reality, reflecting on morality and meditating on existence.更多还原