语言维度里的哈罗德·品特戏剧

  本文关键词：语言维度里的哈罗德·品特戏剧，由笔耕文化传播整理发布。

        本论文以受到20世纪“语言转向”影响的几种理论为基础，展开对品特戏剧语言层面的分析。这些理论表面上虽各不相同，但在深层上却可以统一于对语言性质及其与世界关系的一种共识，即：语言是非指涉性的(non-referential)的，它既不是消极反映外物的镜面，也不是表达内心思想情感的工具。意义并不是来自词物吻合或能指所指之间的一一对应，意义只是语言系统内各成员之间差异化的产物。所以，语言在本质上是一种形式，而非实质。由此，语言获得了相对外在世界而具有的独立性，这使语言在人秩序化世界的过程中积极地参与了现实建构，语言赋予世界以秩序，并缔造出万事万物之间的关联。对语言性质的这种认识类似一枚铆钉，铆接了正文三个章节里所使用的不同理论，它们就像几片扇骨，而每个章节里具体展开的文本分析就像附着于其上的风景各异的扇面。论文正文的第一部分（第二章），首先从理论层面探讨了语言维度里现实与荒诞的关系。人们用语言赋予世界秩序的方式不是唯一的，现实可以具有多重维度。品特戏剧充满自然主义式的细节与逼真的日常对话，但却缺乏现实主义内在的理性逻辑与精确表达。品特戏剧不是现实主义的，但却非常的“现实”，因为在这个时代，人们发现荒诞本身就是现实多重维度之一维。人是语言的存在，品特戏剧用语言层面的荒诞结构出人存在的荒诞。在《房间》(The Room)里，品特用语言塑造了流沙上的戏剧世界。语言的非指涉性(non-referenciality)取消了人原本预设在语言之先、之外的本质性存在,形而上学内涵的二元对立模式失去存在的根基。语言赋予人以存在的意义，然而，这种意义不具有稳定性，它只是能指符在差异化的运动里稍纵即逝的“踪迹”，这种意义，恰如品特自己的描述，就像流沙，随时可能在足底坍塌。在《看管人》(The Caretaker)里，人们“在语言里敌意地栖居”，语言成为主要的戏剧行动。人物们以言行事，一面用语言遮掩自身的虚空，一面又试图通过言说确立自己的身份。话语交锋内含着争权夺利，人际关系的网络在流动的能指符里不断波动。语言全然就是一阵阵的烟幕，指东言西，大家都在语言的遮掩下回避交流，隐藏自己。在语言角斗场上的斗败者，失去的将是其存在的根基。《生日晚会》(The Birthday Party)可以被视为一出“语言说人”的悲剧，人是语言的存在，却不是语言的主宰。人在其成长及成熟的过程中，必须进入作为象征体系的语言，在此，人会被剥夺自我独立的存在，被语言所运载的习俗和法则异化。想脱离语言铺天盖地的罗网，人只能以无意义的声音或者绝对意义上的沉默进行对抗。然而，将自我放逐于语言之外，也就等于远离整个社会系统。正文第二部分（第三章）先从理论的层面讨论了语言与回忆的关联。语言不是镜现过去，而是“再造”过去，语言赋予过去的原始经验以某种秩序和意义，从而让其得以在现在存在。品特与历史学家不同，不以求真为嚆矢，他坚称过去是不可确证的(unverifiable)，所以，他所做的是用语言的“肌质”(texture)还原过去扑朔迷离的本性。在《风景》(Landscape)里，语言的碎片构成一组组流动的诗歌意象，牵引着观众的想象力做超出语言之外的运动，在笼罩语言碎片的朦胧诗意里寻找真相变幻莫测的面孔，此时，语言本身成为了真正的风景。在《归于尘土》（Ashes to Ashes）里，品特间接触及了纳粹大屠杀对人心灵的摧残这一主题。他试图在史学家追求的那种客观真实与自己那充满不确定性的语言之间找到平衡点。品特试着让语言超越自身，以有限的在场召唤出无限的不在场，从而悖论性地达到自身之外。品特还带动语言的运动，使其不断自我解构，那不断被推延和被回避的所指，代表着受害人永远没有勇气面对的那个过去。能指与所指之间的裂缝，恰如受害人心灵上永远无法弥合的伤口。正文第三部分（第四章）聚焦品特戏剧里备受关注的沉默。在指涉性的语言观里，沉默被视为语言的阙如。然而，在差异性的语言观里，沉默与语言相对而生，互相转换，沉默甚至可以比语言包蕴更多的意义。值得一提的是品特本人作为作者在其作品里保持的沉默，他不佯装全知全能，也不充任自己创作的戏剧世界里的上帝。品特戏剧里的沉默分为无声沉默和有声沉默两种。品特对有声沉默的界定是：“言说实际上道出的是隐匿其下的另一种言说。”在《月光》(Moonlight)里，，沉默调节着人物内心复杂情感的强度及走向；表达出语言所无法表达的人物的复杂心理状态；唤起朦胧诗意；代替语言完成人与人之间的交流。在《微痛》(The Slight Ache)里，品特尝试着将抽象的沉默“戏剧化”，赋予其可感知的外形，使其制造出戏剧张力，从而推动剧情的发展。该剧里的卖火柴老人可在象征意义上被视为沉默的化身，沉默就像漩涡的中心，带动并吞噬言说，语言的存在似乎只是为了填补沉默的空洞。

    The dissertation argues for a reevaluation of Pinteresque language in the lightof the20thcentury Linguistic Turn, which has produced some profound changes in thebasic perceptions of language. The belief that language-word link is the relation ofreference, meaning of a word being the object it refers to, is replaced by the idea thatlanguage is non-referential, meaning stemming not from the correspondence betweenthe signifier and the signified but from relations of difference between components oflanguage. Therefore, language in essence is a kind of form rather than content and it isindependent from the outside world. Actually, language constitutes the world by givingit orders and forms. Meanwhile when human beings employ language, what actuallyhappens is “language speaking rather than human beings speaking”, because the subjectof human beings is a cultural structure “interpellated” by language. Furthermore,language carries power while it functions, both at a macro and micro level.Close reading of Pinter’s seven dramas in the new understanding of languageaforementioned constitutes the main body of the present dissertation composed of threeparts. In the first part it is argued that “reality” is multi-dimensional because the wayhuman beings impose orders upon the world through language is varied. Pinter’s plays,as he himself claims, are not realistic, but real. In fact, what renders his plays a sense ofreality is not the naturalistic minutiae but a spirit of absurdity, because in thepostmodern world, the absurd is found to be one possibility of the reality. In Pinter’sdramatic world, reality is redefined in the perspective of linguistic absurdity. In his TheRoom, Pinter creates a world based on the words of quicksand, where Rose’s incessantattempts to force orders upon an orderless world with language is repeatedly frustratedand finally defeated. Unceasingly gliding signifiers only leads Rose to more and moreother signifiers rather than the absolute signified which is able to get everything fixed.The Caretaker shows how in a world linguistically constituted human beings exploitlanguage to negotiate their position or identity within various relationships into whichthey are thrust now that their existence and essence is not pre-language andextra-language. The Birthday Party is concerned with the cultural construction of subjectivity through language and can be viewed as a dramatization of what Heideggerterms as “language speaks us.” Stanley resists being spoken by language in the tragicway of keeping silent, talking nonsense, and feigning mad.The second part first explores in a theoretical way the relations between languageand memory. Language recreates the past instead of mirroring it. It endows what mighthave disappeared with a linguistic shape. Different from historians endeavoring to seekthe only truth of history, Pinter believes that the past is misty and unverifiable. So in hismemory plays, Pinter exploits to a great degree the ambiguous potential of language toexhibit the mistiness of the past and the vagaries of memory. In Landscape, languageitself is fore-grounded as the real “landscape” of this play. Pinter focuses our attentionon the pure form, or the texture of the language of this play. Beth’s recollection iscomposed of linguistic fragments of flowing poetic images, which leads ourimagination surpassing language itself. In Ashes to Ashes, Pinter touches upon thetheme of Nazi holocaust allusively. He tries to maintain a subtle balance between theabsolute truth in historical studies and his language full of uncertainties and ambiguities.Pinter uses language in a paradoxical way, bringing into presence the infinitenon-presence with the limited presence. He makes language to deconstruct language,thus rendering language to transcend itself to reach the realm of the unfathomable. Thecontinually deferred and deluded signified symbolizes the evasive past which Rebeccafinds no courage to confront. What buries deep in the eternal split between the signifierand the signified is the unspeakable suffering the victim experienced.The third part explores Pinter’s well-known deployment of silences. In thelinguistic theory of reference, silence is viewed as the absence of meaning due to itslack of audible sound, the signifier. After the Linguistic Turn, language is understood ascreative and constructive in nature. Thus, silence is taken as part of language, bothcomplementary and interchangeable to audible speaking. Silence is soundlesscommunication and can be just as or even more articulate than speaking. Pinter employssilences in a multitude ways to create meanings of various kinds. Apart from textual silences, there exists another kind of silence, the silence of the author. Pinter keepssilent by giving up his omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent existence in hisdramatic world. Pinter distinguishes two kinds of silences—one when no word isspoken, and the other when a torrent of words is used evasively. In his Moonlight,silences, verbal and nonverbal, regulate the intensity and trend of characters’ complexemotions; express the interior state that is beyond any expression; create poetictension; serve as ways of real communication; etc. Besides wordless silence andeloquent silence, Pinter attempts to dramatize silence, giving concrete shape to thisabstract void. In The Slight Ache, the elderly match seller who never utters a word is thesymbolization of silence per se. Like a deep whirlpool, he stimulates and assimilatesEdwards’ torrents of speech and finally leads to his collapse. Words seem to be thematerial used to fill the infinite void of silence.

语言维度里的哈罗德·品特戏剧

摘要5-7Abstract7-9第一章：绪论10-32    第一节 品特研究综述11-18    第二节 语言：一种可供选择的维度18-25    第三节 理论概述25-32第二章：品特戏剧里的荒诞：在语言里“荒诞地”栖居32-56    第一节 现实、语言和荒诞33-37    第二节 《房间》：语言的流沙37-43    第三节 《看管人》：语言的角斗场43-49    第四节 《生日晚会》：“当说者被说的时候”49-56第三章：品特戏剧里的回忆：语言的追忆56-75    第一节 语言与回忆56-63    第二节 《风景》：语言的“风景”63-69    第三节 《归于尘土》：语言的悖论69-75第四章：品特戏剧里的沉默：无声胜有声75-92    第一节 沉默的声音76-81    第二节 《月光》：沉默里的言说与言说里的沉默81-88    第三节 《微痛》：戏剧化的沉默88-92第五章：结语92-96Works Cited96-102参考文献102-109Appendix109-120后记120-122

  本文关键词：语言维度里的哈罗德·品特戏剧，由笔耕文化传播整理发布。