评约翰·巴思小说的媒介融合——以《曾经沧海》为例

约翰·巴思醉心于叙事艺术30多年来,媒介融合在其创作中发挥了重要功能。本文以其自传体小说《曾经沧海》为例,分析这部作品的媒介融合特点:歌剧化和网络化文本。作家运用媒介融合打造新的小说,既是对后现代小说生存困境的突围,也是对媒介变革深刻影响到文学的演进方式和形式这一事实的积极回应。笔者最后指出巴思的这种创新对小说形式史具有一定创新意义,且为当下电子媒介所培育的文化之弊病提供了一种抵抗的可能,但是以媒介融合为创作手法的小说与作家所期望的创作一种具有愉悦功能的纯文学尚有距离,其影响未能走出学术圈。

A Study of the Media Convergence in John Barth＇ s Novels

Media convergence plays an important role in John Barth＇ s novels in the past more than 30 years. This essay intends to examine his late autobiographical novel Once Upon a Time, which incorporates the character of media convergence by means of theatricality and networking. It argues that the author applied media convergence in his novels in order to break away from the survival dittTcult position of the postmodernism t~ction, and positively respond the fact that literature is intluenced by media reform to a great extent. Barth＇ s innovation in his writing has significance to the western literature, and provides a possibility to resist the negative cultural value cultivated by electronic media. However, the author＇ s novels narrated by media convergence still keep a certain distance from his aim to write belles-lettres with the entertainment.