【作者】 马群英；

【导师】 詹树魁；

【作者基本信息】 厦门大学 ， 外国语言学及应用语言学， 2009， 硕士

【副题名】《白噪音》中的后现代主义叙事

【摘要】 20世纪70年代以来的美国作家中,唐·德里罗是最丰产、最有影响的作家之一。自1971年他的第一部长篇小说《美国文物》(Americana)问世以来,他已经连续发表了15部长篇小说,1部中篇小说,6个剧本以及若干短篇小说、散文等,确立了他在美国文学史上的地位并被誉为是最优秀的后现代主义小说家和最敏锐的美国当代社会生活的批评家。在德里罗的所有作品当中,其代表作《白噪音》比其它任何作品受到评论界更多的关注。评论界普遍认为,《白噪音》抓住了当代美国的精神状态,“复印”了美国当代生活,反映了美国后现代文化。但通过仔细研究,我们发现其实这也是一部极具后现代主义写作特征的小说。而且,这些后现代主义创作技巧的成功运用更有利于作者展现美国的后现代社会生活,表达了作者对社会问题的关注。然而,到目前为止,还没有任何对此书后现代主义叙事特征进行系统讨论的文章。因此,本文的目的就是分析《白噪音》的后现代主义叙事,从而为此书提供一个新的批评视角。除了引言和结论,本文包括五个部分。引言简要介绍了作者的生平,他的作品以及评论界对其作品的评述。论文的第一章探讨了后现代主义思潮的起源并闸述了典型的美国后现代主义小说的基本特征。为了让读者更好地了解美国的当代生活,第二章展示了《白噪音》中所描绘的美国社会的后现代生活,主要分析了大众传媒、科技和死亡意识这些主题。第三章分析了小说一个非常重要的后现代技巧——黑色幽默。德里罗采用黑色幽默的手法来揭露当今社会由于大众传媒和高科技所导致的社会的荒诞性和混乱性,巧妙地对美国后现代社会进行了批判和讽刺。第四章主要研究《白噪音》中的戏仿成份。戏仿不是后现代文学特有的写作技法,但后现代主义的戏仿特别强调其滑稽的一面和它对传统的颠覆和批判的功能,使它有别于现代主义的戏仿。在《白噪音》中,作者对商品文化、灾难片和侦探小晚的戏仿都带有明显的后现代主义特征。通过戏仿,作者以戏谑的语言嘲讽各种社会现实,暗示了当今美国社会存在的严重社会问题。第五章论述了小说的另一个后现代主义叙事特点——碎片化。虽然现代主义作品也强调叙事的碎片化,但是现代主义作品时刻维护着一个中心,试图在碎片中寻找统一。而后现代主义作品的碎片中不再有中心,体现的是同中心分离的混乱。在《白噪音》中,作者通过拼贴、碎片化的叙事和不连贯的情节,使小说的整体性被打破,给读者一种零散和混乱的感觉。小说碎片化的叙事方式隐喻了整个被多媒体和高科技所浸透的美国后工业社会的破碎性。文章的最后一部分是结论。通过以上分析可以认为,德里罗在《白噪音》中不仅向读者展示了美国后现代社会生活的方方面面而且也让读者领略到了典型的后现代主义叙事特征,虽然这样的叙事方式会给他们的阅读带来一定的困难。此外,结论部分还对德里罗作为一个作家在美国当代社会的独特地位进行了评价。在德里罗的整个写作生涯中,他是一个很有思想的美国当代社会生活和文化的批评家。作为一个作家,尽管他不能对当今的社会问题提供任何建议和解决办法,但他用高超的艺术技巧向读者展示他所看到的一切,并让他们关注当今的社会问题,这已经足够了。更多还原

【Abstract】 Recognized as one of the finest postmodern novelists and most astute social critics of contemporary American life,Don DeLillo has published altogether 15 novels, one novella,6 plays,a lot of short stories,essays and so on since his publication of Americana in 1971 till now.Among all his works,his masterpiece White Noise has caught greater attention than any other.While much of the criticism on this novel has focused on DeLillo’s relationship to postmodern American culture,there is no comprehensive discussion of the postmodern narrative features that well suit the author’s postmodern concern.Through close readings of White Noise and discussions of its postmodern narrative characteristics,this thesis otters a significant addition to current criticism on this novel.My thesis consists of five chapters besides introduction and conclusion.The introduction part gives a general survey of Don DeLillo’s life,works and a brief literary review.Then the thesis begins with a chapter that introduces the tide of postmodernism,focusing on the origin and emergence of postmodernism,the typical postmodern American fiction and the main characteristics of them.Trying to give a panorama of the contemporary life in America,the second chapter displays the postmodern American society portrayed in White Noise in which mass media, technology,and the concept of death are especially focused on.The third chapter deals with a very important postmodern technique,black humor,in White Noise.DeLillo employs black humor to expose the absurdity and chaos of the society which are caused largely by mass media and advanced technology.In this way,a dark sense of humor is subtly presented as a way of criticizing and satirizing a postmodern society as he describes in the novel.Chapter Four explores another important feature of postmodernist writing,parody,in the novel.Parody is not merely used in postmodernist writings but parody in postmodernist writing differs from parody in modernist writing in the sense that in postmodernist parody,the comic effect and critically ironical function are stressed at the same time.In this chapter,DeLillo’s parody of consumer culture,parody of disaster movie,and parody of detective story in the novel are discussed and analyzed.In the play of parody,the writer suggests the most serious problems of the contemporary society.Chapter Five examines fragmentation,another important feature of postmodern fiction,in White Noise.Just like parody,fragmentation,as a writing technique,is also not merely adopted in postmodernist writings because modernism also emphasizes on fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives,and random-seeming collages of different materials. However,postmodern fragmentation differs from modern fragmentation in the sense that while many modernist writers treat fragmentation as something tragic and try to achieve unity,coherence,and meaning by fragments,postmodernist writers do not claim that unity,meaning and coherence can be pursued and they just play with fragmentation.In White Noise,through the fragmentation of language,incoherent plot and the technique of collage,the wholeness and completion of the novel are interrupted.With fragmentation as his narrative technique,DeLillo successfully turns the whole structure and language of his novel into a huge metaphor for the media and technology saturated post-industrial America.The last part is the conclusion.Based on the analysis above,it is easily concluded that White Noise is a novel which not only touches upon typical aspects of a postmodern society such as mass media,advanced technology,and people’s particular fear of death,but also displays distinct postmodernist narrative techniques such as black humor,parody and fragmentation.In addition,DeLillo’s unique position as a writer in contemporary American society is evaluated in this part.In his whole writing career,DeLillo is a thoughtful social and cultural critic.Though,as a writer,he cannot offer any suggestion to current social problems,it is enough for him to demonstrate a dystopia with high artistic techniques,without offering a utopia to replace it.更多还原