【作者】 万惠蓉；

【导师】 毛凌滢；

【作者基本信息】 重庆大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2007， 硕士

【副题名】论爵士乐在《看不见的人》中的叙事功能和意义建构作用

【摘要】 非裔美国作家拉尔夫·埃里森的小说《看不见的人》在二十世纪美国文学及世界文学中一直占据着重要地位,被誉为二战以来最有影响力的美国小说之一。它为埃里森带来的种种荣誉和奖项奠定了他在美国文坛乃至世界文坛上的牢固地位。这部小说自1952年出版以来,迄今已55年,但它的艺术技巧和文化蕴涵,至今仍然有着惊人的力量。埃里森从小深受爵士乐熏陶,对爵士乐颇有研究并梦想成为一名爵士音乐家。他曾经说过:“你感到困惑吗?音乐会让你变得崇高。”爵士乐给予了他写作的灵感并引导他通向崇高之路。对爵士乐的深刻理解和研究使他所创作的小说《看不见的人》不可避免的带有浓厚的爵士乐风味,以至人们把它说成是爵士音乐家的即兴创作。以往学术界对小说《看不见的人》的研究评价主要集中在它的主题、文化意义和艺术技巧等方面。虽然也有评论家注意到了爵士乐这一美国本土音乐对作家的深刻影响,并简单谈及小说字里行间的爵士乐,但很少有人系统深入地研究过爵士乐在小说中的功能和作用。本论文试图把音乐和文学研究结合起来,探讨爵士乐在小说《看不见的人》中的叙事功能和意义建构作用以及深化小说主题的作用。以便从一个新的、独特的视角对《看不见的人》做出更深入的理解与阐释。本篇论文共六个部分。第一章是绪论,包括文献综述、论文研究目的和意义以及论文结构安排。第二章追寻埃里森和爵士乐的深厚渊源以及爵士乐对他的文学生涯之影响。第三章论述爵士乐在小说中的叙事作用,详细地分析小说爵士乐般的结构和叙事方式以及埃里森如何借用即兴创作,应答轮唱,即兴重复等爵士乐演奏和表达方式,来结构作品和表达思想。第四章分析爵士乐在建构小说意义上的功能,研究小说中爵士乐风味的环境和人物以及关键情节中爵士音乐的作用。第五章探讨爵士乐在深化小说主题方面的作用。本章分析阿姆斯特郎的布鲁斯“(我做了什么为何如此)漆黑和忧伤”在小说中所起到的主题曲般的作用以及主人公在追寻自我过程中的爵士乐般的自由精神。最后一章是论文结论。基于上述在文本细读上的分析研究,本论文认为,在小说《看不见的人》的中,埃里森成功地运用爵士乐把文字转变成“可闻可见”的艺术,赋予了小说爵士乐般的形式并创造性地使用爵士乐的演奏技巧和表达方式来结构作品,建构小说意义,推动情节发展并深化小说主题。爵士乐如同小说的配乐使文字变得有声有色,渲染了气氛,引起读者更深层次的共鸣。爵士乐风格将小说《看不见的人》中的黑人文化突显出来,以其独特的方式展示了黑人的生存困境。没有爵士乐这一具有深厚文化隐喻的音乐的借鉴使用,《看不见的人》的意义和魅力将会大大减少。更多还原

【Abstract】 African American writer Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man always comes to the front when one looks through the twentieth century American literature and the world literature. It is hailed as one of the most influential American novels published after World War II. This novel brought Ralph Ellison plenty of honors and awards which established his firm position both in the American and the world literature. It has been 55 years since the publication of the novel in 1952, but its artistic techniques and cultural implications are still astonishing today.Deeply influenced by jazz since his childhood, Ellison knew much about jazz and dreamed of becoming a jazz musician. Once he said,“Are thou troubled? Music will ennoble thee.”Jazz inspired him in writing and led him to a noble road. With his deep understanding and study on jazz, his novel Invisible Man is inevitably imbued with jazz flavor, so that it is considered as a piece of work improvised by a jazz musician.The previous comments on Invisible Man mainly focused on its theme, its cultural significance and artistic techniques. Although some critics have noticed the profound influence of jazz, the indigenous American music, on Ellison, and have somewhat touched upon the jazz music between the lines of the novel. Yet few have made in-depth analysis on the function and role of jazz in the novel. Connecting literature with music,this thesis intends to study the narrative function of jazz, the role of jazz in constructing the meaning and deepening the theme of the novel. Thus,a unique perspective is adopted to have a new and deeper understanding and interpretation of the novel Invisible Man.This thesis consists of six parts. Chapter 1 is an introduction, including literature review, the purpose and significance of the study as well as layout of the thesis. Chapter II tracks down the deep relationship of Ellison and jazz, and the influence of jazz on his literary career. Chapter III discusses the narrative function of jazz in the novel. There is deep analysis of the jazz-like structure and narrative mode of the novel. Then this part explores how Ellison borrowed ways of expression from jazz performance, such as improvisation, call-and-response, riffing, etc, to structure the novel and express his ideas. Chapter IV investigates the meaning-construction role of jazz in Invisible Man. Environments and characters with jazz flavor and the function of jazz music in critical points are studied. Chapter V explores the role of jazz in deepening the theme of the novel, analyzing the function of Armstrong’s blues“(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue”as theme song of the novel and the jazz-like liberal spirit in the protagonist’s quest of self. The last chapter is the conclusion.Based on the above analysis and careful reading of the novel, the thesis holds the idea that in the novel Invisible Man, Ellison successfully transformed the literary text of words into somewhat“visual and audible”form of art. He endowed the novel with a jazz-like form, and creatively borrowed ways of expression from jazz performance to structure the novel, construct the meaning, develop the plots and deepen the theme. Like incidental music, jazz makes the words vivid and colorful, which helps to romance the atmosphere and arouse the readers’inner resonance. Jazz flavor of the novel gives prominence to the black culture and presents the blacks’grim living conditions in a unique way. Without the adoption of jazz—a music form with profound cultural metaphor, the significance and charm of Invisible Man would be greatly abated.更多还原