硕士学位论文：艾丽丝·默多克小说《杰克逊的困境》的叙事技巧研究.doc

1、分类号 密级 UDC = 硕 士 学 位 论 文 艾丽丝默多克小说杰克逊的困境的叙事技巧研究 学 位 申 请 人： 学 科 专 业： 英语语言文学 指 导 教 师 ： 教授 、 年五月 三 峡 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of English Literature Narrative Strategies of Iris Murdochs Jacksons Dilemma Graduate Student:

2、 Lin Xuelian Major: English Language and Literature Supervisor: Prof. Xu Jiangang China Three Gorges University Yichang, 443002, P.R.China May, 2012 三 峡 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 I 三峡大学学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明：所 呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下，独立进行研究工作所取得的成果，除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的作品成果。对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体均已在文中以明确方式标明

3、，本人完全意识到本声明的法律后果由本人承担。 学位论文作者签名： 日 期： 三 峡 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 II 内 容 摘 要 艾丽丝默多克，全名吉恩艾丽丝默多克，是二战后英国文学领域主要的小说家之一，同时也是一位在世界上最具影响力的作家之一。她一生著有二十七部小说，这其中还包括一些大奖得者黑王子 、神圣的和亵渎的爱情机器以及大海啊，大海。 不止于此，她同时还创作了大量的戏剧、诗歌以及众多颇具影响力的文学评论文章。源于她对于人类伦理道德的深切关注，她同时还以一位伦 理道德哲学家的身份为大家所熟知。她以小说为媒介向外界传达了她的哲学观点，也正是这一点使得她与同时代的其他作家相比，更具有

4、了她自己的鲜明特色。她“认为哲学是任何一名具有专业素养的学者都必须触及到的学科，而散文与小说则是表达思想的绝佳手段 .”但是默多克的小说也绝不是常规意义之下的哲学小说，她自己也反对将小说刻意地写成哲学小说。 作为默多克最后一部得以出版的小说，杰克逊的困境显然不如默多克前期的作品那样吸引人们的关注。然而，对杰克逊的困境研究的忽视却导致了对默多克及其作品研究的不完整，这也是其系 统性研究的一大损失。基于上述原因，本文将依据杰拉尔热奈以及国内著名学者申丹的经典叙事学理论对杰克逊的困境中的叙事技巧进行一个较为系统的尝试性研究，以填补该小说文学研究方面的不足，丰富默多克及其小说的系统性研究。论文共分六个

5、部分： 第一章节引言部分首先介绍默多克的生平、文学创作经历、写作特色及其创作成果。同时这一部分还将简要介绍杰克逊的困境的故事情节。然后本文的作者将对国内外的研究现状作出较为细致的分析。第三，介绍热奈特以及国内著名叙事学专家申丹的经典叙事学理论，并对本文即将应用到的叙事理论 及术语进行解析。最后将对本研究拟产生的文学效果进行简要陈述。 第二章节主要分析杰克逊的困境的叙事结构。这一部分将为后文的研究打下一定的基础。对其叙事结构做完分析之后，本文作者将分析默多克在该部小说中所采用的复调叙事结构与其主题的暗合之目的，挖掘出叙事结构以一种独特的方式凸显了小说所彰显的主题。小说所具有的复调叙事结构的多人物

6、、多中心、多角度，非全知全能式的叙事特征隐射出了小说珍视他人的存在、追求至善真我的主题。 第三章节主要对小说中的叙事时间进行分析。作者所用的多样易变的叙事时间使得整部小说时间界限模糊 ，故事情节发展有张有弛。故事发生在当下，作者却以倒叙的方式于其中穿插叙述过去发生或未来即将发生的事情。小说的正常时间顺序叙述常被倒叙或者预叙打断，过去、现在和将来之间的界限被混淆甚至被忽略。这使得整部三 峡 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 III 小说打破了线性叙事的传统。另外文本中对人物的悔恨反省的反复叙述深化了小说的主题。 第四章节依据热奈特的“聚焦”理论分析小说所采用的多重叙事视角。默多克在这部小说中采用了

7、零聚焦、外聚焦以及内聚焦，另外各种叙事视角处于不断变化的状态甚至出现重叠，使得小说中的故事于动态中向前发展，从而达到了独特的叙事效果和阅读效果。 不同叙事视角间的不断交替即强调了读者的直接感知，同时也拓展了叙事空间，使得整个故事发展更为自由，更为灵活。 第五章节将对小说文本中不同的叙事话语进行分析。通过对转述话语、间接转述话语以及戏剧式转述话语的灵活运用，作者自如地控制叙事距离与叙事角度，同时还为读者留下了自我想象及自我创作的空间，从而使得整个故事的主题得到了拓展与深化。 第六章节为本文的结论部分。通过结合经典叙事学的相关理论对小说进行了较为细致的分析之后，本文得出结论，杰克逊的困境并不是其作

8、者默多克写作生涯的退化之表现，它有着独具匠心的叙事技巧 。这些独特的叙事技巧对叙事距离的自如控制、故事情节的发展以及主题的展现有着极其重要的作用。 关键词：杰克逊的困境 叙事技巧 经典叙事学 三 峡 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 IV Abstract Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), in full Jean Iris Murdoch, one of the major English post-World War novelists, has also a strong claim of being one of the most distinguished novel

9、ists in the world. She is the author of twenty-seven novels which include those prize-winners such as The Black Prince (1973), The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (1974) and The Sea, the Sea (1978). Not only that, she is also the composer of a handful of plays and poems, a number of influential arti

10、cles and treatises. Owing to her deep concern for ethics and moral problems confronting human beings, she is also known as a moral philosopher. She uses the novel as a way of developing her own philosophical ideas, which of course distinguishes Murdoch from her contemporaries. She “approaches philos

11、ophy as a professional academician and considers prose fictionto be a desperately important means of expression.” However, Murdochs novels are not philosophical ones in any usual sense, and she herself is opposed in principle to the enterprise of writing philosophical novels. As Murdochs last novel

12、which has been officially published, Jacksons Dilemma obviously does not receive as much publicity as Murdochs earlier novels. However, the neglect of the research on Jacksons Dilemma leads to the incompletion of the research about Iris Murdoch and her works, which is also a loss of the relevant sys

13、tematic study. Based on the reasons stated above, this dissertation tries to make a marginal contribution on filling in the research about Iris Murdochs last novel Jacksons Dilemma, and enrich the systematic study of Iris Murdoch and her works. The following parts offer an overview of the whole diss

14、ertation which is in a six- part frame. Chapter One firstly gives a general introduction on Iris Murdochs life story, writing principles and characteristics, and literary achievements. And the main plots of her novel Jacksons Dilemma are also introduced in this part. Secondly, a systematical literar

15、y review is presented from two aspects: at home and abroad. Thirdly, it gives a general introduction to the narrative theory of Genette as well as the theory developed by a famous Chinese professor Shen Dan, and explains some important terms that are adopted in the dissertation. Lastly, it illustrat

16、es the academical significance of this study briefly. Chapter Two analyzes the narrative structure of Jacksons Dilemma. The analysis in this part is going to lay the foundation for the later study. After figuring out the narrative structure, this part discusses the author Murdochs purpose of using t

17、his special kind of 三 峡 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 V narrative structure. The author of this dissertation supposes that the narrative structure reflects the theme of the novel from a quite different perspective. Characterized by multi-characters, multi-centers, and multi-focalization, the polyphonic narrative

18、structure interacts with the theme of valuing others existence and pursuing goodness and true-self. Chapter Three analyzes the narrative time of the novel. By using variable narrative time, Murdoch places her story in a chaos. The story is set in the present time, but the past always appears by mean

19、s of flashbacks. The present narration and the chronological time order of the story are often interrupted by flashforwards and flashbacks. The narrative moves constantly back and forth between the past and the present, and thus blurs the demarcation between them. It not only makes the novel complic

20、ated and fragmented, but also corresponds to the tradition of dealing with time in a linear way. And by adopting the repeated narration of the characters remorse, the theme of the novel has been illustrated deeply. Chapter Four employs Genettes “focalization” theory to analyze the different narrativ

21、e focalizations used in this novel, including zero focalization, external focalization and internal focalization. This dissertation finds out that the focalization in Jacksons Dilemma is often changing or even mixing with each other, which makes the whole story be developed in a dynamic way and achi

22、eve a special narrative effect and a unique reading effect. The alternating of those different focalization emphasizes the direct perception and at the same time broadens the narration scope, thus make the whole story develop in a freer way. Chapter Five discusses the narrative discourses of the nov

23、el, including the narrated discourse, the indirect narrated discourse, and the dramatic narrated discourse. By adopting varied discourses, the author controls the narrative distance and the narrative angles freely, and also invites the readers participation and imagination, thus the theme of the nov

24、el is widened and deepened. Chapter Six is a conclusion of the dissertation. Based on the detailed analysis of the narrative strategies of the novel by using the relevant theory of classical narratology, the dissertation comes to a conclusion that Jacksons Dilemma is not the surprising turn of its a

25、uthor for its unique narrative strategies. The special narrative strategies of Jacksons Dilemma play very important roles in narrative distance-controlling, story-developing and theme-presenting. Key words: Jacksons Dilemma; narrative strategies; classical narratology 三 峡 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 VI Contents

26、 Chapter One Iris Murdoch and Classical Narratology . 1 1.1 An Introduction to Iris Murdoch and Jacksons Dilemma . 1 1.2 The Significance of the Study . 3 1.3 Literature Review . 4 1.4 The Theoretical Foundation of this Dissertation . 6 Chapter Two The Theme-Interacting Narrative Structure of Jackso

27、ns Dilemma . 9 2.1 The Narrative Structure of Jacksons Dilemma . 9 2.2 The Theme of Jacksons Dilemma . 11 2.3 The Structures Interacting with the Theme . 12 Chapter Three The Variable Narrative Time in Jacksons Dilemma . 14 3.1 Time Duration in Jacksons Dilemma . 14 3.1.1 Summary in Jacksons Dilemma

28、 . 15 3.1.2 Scene in Jacksons Dilemma . 15 3.1.3 Ellipsis in Jacksons Dilemma . 17 3.1.4 Pause in Jacksons Dilemma . 17 3.2 Time Frequency in Jacksons Dilemma. 19 3.3 Time Sequence in Jacksons Dilemma . 20 3.3.1 Prolepsis in Jacksons Dilemma . 21 3.3.2 Analepsis in Jacksons Dilemma . 22 Chapter Four

29、 The Dynamic Narrative Focalizations in Jacksons Dilemma . 24 4.1 Zero Focalization Alternating with External Focalization . 24 4.2 External Focalization Alternating with Internal Focalization . 26 4.3 Internal Focalization Alternating with Zero Focalization . 28 Chapter Five The Varied Narrative Di

30、scourses in Jacksons Dilemma. 31 5.1 Narrated Discourse . 31 5.2 Indirect Narrated Discourse . 33 5.3 Dramatic Narrated Discourse . 34 三 峡 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 VII 5.3.1 Dramatic Dialogue . 34 5.3.2 Interior Monologue . 36 Chapter Six Conclusion. 38 Bibliography . 40 Acknowledgements . 44 Appendix . 45 三

31、 峡 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 1 Chapter One Iris Murdoch and Classical Narratology 1.1 An Introduction to Iris Murdoch and Jacksons Dilemma Born in Dublin in 1919, Iris Murdoch with the full name Jean Iris Murdoch, is universally accepted as one of the most significant fiction writers of the postwar literature

32、 world. Brought up in a middle class family of London, Murdoch received good education which indeed built favorable foundation for her future writing career. It was in college where she began to show her great interest and enthusiasm to the literature, and her deep concern with human existence and t

33、he world led her into the field of philosophy. Her reading of Plato, Kant and other world-famous thinkers helped the forming of her world-view and philosophy outlook. As a talented and original novelist, Iris Murdoch is a writer who combines perfectly the prolific output with the high level of liter

34、ature achievements. Kingsley Amis asserts that Iris Murdoch is “a distinguished novelist of a rare kind“ (qtd. McEwan, 1981:38); Frederick P.W. McDowell later confirms her achievements by saying that Iris Murdoch is the most prolific one of her contemporary novelists, and Critic Lindsay Tucker, with

35、 marvelous academic vagueness, calls Iris Murdoch “something of a phenomenon“ (qtd. Lodge, 191:103), however, Lindsay Tuckers suchlike vague assessment reveals that Iris Murdochs creation does make profound influence to the public for her deep concern for the ethics and moral problems confronting hu

36、man beings. She wanted, through her novels, to reach all possible readers, in different ways and by different means: by the excitement of her story, its pace and its comedy, through its ideas and its philosophical implications, through the numinous atmosphere of her own original and created world-th

37、e world she must have glimpsed as she considered and planned her first steps in the art of fiction. (John Bailey, 1999:178) Murdochs constant dealing with everyday ethical or moral issues also distinguishes herself from her contemporaries, and her works continue to give pleasure to the public and command respect and honors from all over the world. In 1963 she was named Honorary