伊恩麥克尤恩《贖罪》中小說家延宕的告白

Abstract

當代英國作家伊恩麥克尤恩的《贖罪》是部揉雜獨特告白形式的小說。小說直到最終章才清楚指出，這不僅是伊恩麥克尤恩描述主角白昂妮贖罪的小說，更是書中主角白昂妮身為一位作家的告白及贖罪手段。游移在虛假與真實的邊界，此書的核心問題在於，小說家的寫作能否彌補現實生活犯下的過錯？而身為讀者的我們，又該如何解讀小說與告白的轉變？\r\n\r\n本文分成四個章節。第一章介紹《贖罪》的相關評論及理論架構。第二章先闡述巴赫汀的對話和複調理論，再剖析小說中的前三部份如何具體呈現這兩種特質，突顯白昂妮藉由多重敘述觀點，瓦解幼年時自我中心傾向並開啟與他者的對話。第三章聚焦於小說架構的告白轉折。長久以來，告白被視為一種賦予解放和完整自我的力量，傅柯則提出現代社會下的告白演變為自我規訓的機制。以傅柯的觀點來解讀小說結尾，白昂妮的告白在自我解放與治癒的表層下，其實隱含了快感和權力的螺旋結構，對真實及作者身份的延宕意味著她身為小說家權力的回歸。

Ian McEwan`s Atonement is a novel experimentally weaved with a peculiar confessional form. Not until the last part of the novel are readers informed the framed narrative structure: this is not merely McEwan`s novel which depicts the heroine Briony`s atonement, but more importantly, the grown-up novelist Briony`s own confession crafted as a novel to make amends. This complicates our reading in retrospect as the ending reveals the central dilemma: how to judge the novelist`s privilege to use confession to atone for the fault made in real life.\r\n \r\nThis thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter introduces the criticisms of Atonement, followed by my theoretical frameworks adopted to read this novel. The second chapter begins with the explications of Bakhtin`s theory of dialogism and polyphony. By integrating these two concepts to scrutinize the first three parts of the novel, I attempt to analyze how Briony`s self-reflexive writing and utilizations of multiple points of view expose her childhood monologic mentality and demonstrate her broadening of the self-other understandings. The third chapter discusses the ambivalent confessional twist in relation to the previous story Briony has mesmerized readers to believe. While the confession has been historically considered as a means of self-liberation, Foucault brings out another aspect that the institutionalization of the confession has turned itself into a mechanism of self-discipline. The novel eventually strikes the final note on the double impetus of Briony`s narrative that her confession offers a consolation to suture with the past but meanwhile, upon close inspection, the overtones of her restoration of power as a novelist and the spirals of pleasure and power still lurk behind.