壹、引 言
當代西方文藝批評理論多來自於對小說的分析,也多應用於對小說的批評。但如果我們運用這些理
論對詩歌進行解讀,就會對詩歌產生新的認識。以雪萊的十四行詩Ozymandias為例,我們可以運用敘
事理論和讀者反應批評理論來分析這首詩的主題。原文如下
Ozymandias*
Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'
王佐良的譯文如下[2]:
奧西曼提斯①
客自海外歸,曾見沙漠古國
有石像半毀,唯余巨腿
蹲立沙礫間。像頭旁落,
半遭沙埋,但人面依然可畏,
那冷笑,那發號施令的高傲,
足見雕匠看透了主人的心,
才把那石頭刻得神情唯肖,
而刻像的手和像主的心
早成灰燼。像座上大字在目:
“吾乃萬王之王是也,
蓋世功業,敢叫天公折服!”
此外無壹物,但見廢墟周圍,
寂寞平沙空莽莽,
伸向荒涼的四方。
①奧西曼提斯即公元前十三世紀的埃及王雷米西斯二
世。他的墳墓在底比斯地方，形如壹龐大的獅身人面像。
二、開放性主題
在分析詩歌的時候,我們通常關註詩歌的主題。中國古代多以抒情詩為主,從《尚書·堯典》的詩言誌說,到王國維的《人間詞話》中的“意境說”,都是關註到詩歌的起源、作用和審美特征。但中國古代缺乏規模宏大的長篇敘事式的英雄史詩。亞裏士多德的《詩學》關註情節,註意到文藝的快感和教益兩個方面的作用。雪萊雖然主張靈感說,行動上卻是壹個革命者。“詩使萬象化成美麗;它使最美麗的東西愈見其美,它給最醜陋的東西添上了美;它撕去這世界的陳腐的面幕,而露出赤裸的、酣睡的美——這種美是世間種種形相的精神。”[3]雪萊是積極浪漫主義詩人,他反抗壓迫和剝削。他的十四行詩Ozymandias可以被看成是暗指世間仍有暴虐、專制、壓迫。但如果我們運用敘事理論和讀者批評理論來分析,這首詩是開放性的文本,具有更加廣泛的主題。
第壹,這首詩可以被看成是對權勢的嘲弄。在古埃及國王拉默西斯第二命令雕刻他永久的紀念碑時,工匠以其藝術品展現了他對國王的嘲弄;而曾經輝煌壹時的國王也不可避免地被時間所淹沒,變得默默無聞,只留下破碎的石像供後人追思。而這破碎的石像最終也會隨著時間的流逝而消失。這種權勢功績和榮耀輝煌都轉瞬即逝,國王想要的永垂青史也是壹場空。
第二,這首詩反映了藝術和美也難以永存。作為美的象征的藝術品石像經過風吹雨打已經破碎,這破碎的石像還能存在多久?誰也無法回答。在時間的面前,壹切的美將變成不完美,最終消失殆盡。
第三,這首詩反映了只有時間是永恒的,所有的壹切包括權力、藝術美甚至人類,隨著時間的推移都會消失,只剩下茫然無際的大自然。
三、敘事理論的角度
1.第壹人稱的敘事方式
壹般說來,敘事詩中的敘述者多以第壹人稱和第三人稱的形式出現。“使用第壹人稱有很多好處。首先可以開闊思維空間,使敘述者和作者之間存在思維***性的瞬息;其次,讀者隨後也可以堂而皇之地走進作者這個思維和講述的血肉之軀。”[4]在這首十四行詩中,作者用了第壹人稱的敘事方式,給讀者講述了兩個故事:旅行者的故事和國王的故事。敘述者“我”聆聽著旅行者講述的故事,從古埃及回來的旅行者向“我”描述了他的所見所聞:失去了軀幹的石雕人腿,立在沙漠中。在附近半埋在沙中支離破碎的人
面,雙眉緊皺,嘴唇緊閉,帶著冷酷權威的嘲笑表情。它的雕刻師揣摩著這些表情,並把它們刻在了無生命的石頭上。另壹個是國王的故事,國王說道:“不服氣,要和我比壹下的人們,妳們看看我的功績,也就只好望洋興嘆了吧。”這裏就有必要了解壹下背景,古埃及國王拉默西斯第二創造了偉大的功績,建立了
巨大的陵墓,雕刻了自己的石像,取名Ozymandias,希望他自己的功績能流芳百世。這裏,“我”是敘述者,同時也可看作是作者的聲音。作者聲音的存在不必由他或她的直接陳述來標識,而可以在敘述者的語言中通過某種手法或通過某種行為結構等非語言線索表示出來,以傳達作者與敘述者之間價值觀或判斷上的差異[5]。作者通過“我”介入了故事,表達了作者的情感,作者的身影時隱時現。但同時“我”又不完全是作者,“我”所聽到的也是讀者所聽到的。讀者也因此可以與敘述者對話,尋求***同的感受。
2.兩層敘事結構
這首詩的故事結構有兩層敘事。表層敘事:旅行者的故事,“我”是聽眾;國王的故事,工匠是見證人。在旅行者的故事中穿插了國王的故事,因為國王的故事是旅行者講述的。兩個故事交織在壹起構成了“我”聽到的故事,即深層敘事:“我”聽到的故事又是讀者讀到的故事,我向讀者轉述了旅行者的故事。這種結構跨越了時空,使連綿的時間和無垠的空間濃縮在幾分鐘內和十四行詩中,有助於讀者在這樣開放的文本中發揮他們的想像力,同時也有助於揭示這首詩的時間主題。
3.多個敘事聲音
詹姆斯對傳統敘事理論的壹個突破性觀點是,他反對自亞裏士多德以來關於敘事要以情節為中心的觀念,而主張要以人物為中心[6]。對於人物而言,聲音是必不可少的。人物的聲音就折射出人物的個性、身份和地位。在這首詩中,旅行者和國王的聲音是有標記的,用said和引號表示出來;“我”和雕刻家的聲音是無標記的,“我”在詩中只是個聆聽者,而雕刻家地位低微,沒有發言權,統治階級不允許受壓迫者表露真情實感,他只能把自己的想法通過藝術品表現出來。這種有意的沈默是迫不得已的,更具力量,能達到“此時無聲勝有聲”的效果。四種聲音從四個不同的角度展示同壹幅場景:在廣袤無垠的沙漠中,古代的廢墟訴說著歲月的滄桑。高貴的國王和低賤的工匠,典雅的藝術和荒蕪的古跡都在時間河流的沖刷中模糊難辨。
四、讀者反應批評的角度
所有的作品都要由它的審美主體——讀者來閱讀,對文本的闡釋、閱讀體、意義的生成都離不開讀者。費什認為讀者制造了他在文本中所看到的壹切[7]。壹個句子(段落、壹部小說、壹首詩)的意義同句子中間的意義並無直接關系,或者換壹句並不那麽咄咄逼人的話來說,壹個句子所傳達的消息,亦即壹句話的信息構成了其意義的壹部分,但決不完全等同於意義本身。不是別的其他的什麽,正是壹個句子的全部經驗不是指對它本身的描述,包括我要作出的任何評述才是它的意義。運用這壹理論我們來分析這首詩,當讀者首先讀到“I met a traveler…who said”時,就會想到這是壹個旅行者在講述他的旅行見聞。讀者此刻是對古代藝術的欣賞和惋惜,感慨歲月的無情,藝術美也無法永存。當讀者讀到“Look on my works,…”時,讀者又讀到了國王的故事,此刻讀者是對國王的嘲笑,國王想要永垂不朽,正如中國古代的皇帝尋找長生不老藥壹樣的愚蠢可笑。到最後兩行,各種聲音都靜了下來,只有浩瀚的沙漠伸向遠方。作者用boundless,bare,lone,faraway給讀者以想像的空間。敘事時間也從遠古拉回到現在,甚至未來。此刻讀者似有所悟,在天地之間人是多麽得渺小,而時空永存。
詩歌已經結束,但文本的意義並未結束。由於讀者有不同的人生體驗和審美情趣,對作品的理解和闡釋也會不盡相同。
作者反應批評理論的代表人物之壹伊瑟爾提出了“隱含的讀者”,是非真實的,是作者在其作品中所要求的能夠體驗文本或使文本產生意義的讀者[8]。如果從“隱含的讀者”的角度去考察這首詩的主題,我們就首先應該考察作者的意圖。雪萊是壹個關心民眾疾苦的積極浪漫主義詩人,他以詩為武器表達了他
的戰鬥精神。他的代表作《西風頌》就說明了這壹點。同樣,我們也可以說在這首詩中他想借古諷今,為受壓迫者疾呼,古埃及國王已成為歷史,但專制暴虐現今還存在。時間可以改變壹切,也將最終改變剝削制度。君不見曾經輝煌壹時的國王和他的王國(mighty works),如今無處尋覓,只有斷壁殘垣（remains and wrecks）。
五、結束語
借鑒敘事理論為分析敘事詩提供了新的方法和新的角度。而讀者反應批評理論使文本更具開放意義。作者、文本和讀者三者是有機統壹的整體。作者的思想在文本中得以表現,讀者對文本有不同的閱讀體驗。最成功的閱讀是這樣的:在閱讀中被創造出來的這兩個自我,作者和讀者,能夠找到完全的和諧
壹致.
該文作者：黃 忠
原文轉自：/archiver/?tid-1534.html
*Percy Bysshe Shelley was the husband of Mary Shelley (writer of Frankenstein) and a contemporary and friend of Lord Byron. He is widely regarded as the finest poet of the Romantic period and possibly the greatest English poet of all time. A philosopher and atheist , expelled from Oxford for the publication of a pamphlet entitled "The Necessity of Atheism", Shelley led an itinerant life and died in 1822, drowned.
"Ozymandias" was written in 1818, in the same year that he started on his most famous work, "Prometheus Unbound". At the time he was wandering in Italy and Venice with Mary and Clare Claremont, the cast-off lover of Byron, and the melancholy that affected him during that time shows through clearly in "Ozymandias".
The eponymous "Ozymandias" is perhaps better known as Rameses II, ruler of Egypt in the 13th century BC. The poem has been interpreted in a number of different ways, but all center on the irony in Ozymandias' declaration that the "Mighty" should "look upon my works, and despair".
Shelley wrote many other poems during this time, of which "Prometheus Unbound" remains the best known. Four years later, he died, drowned at sea, with the conviction that his work would never receive popular acclaim.
Ozymandias
1I met a traveller from an antique land,
2Who said -- "two vast and trunkless legs of stone
3Stand in the desert ... near them, on the sand,
4Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
5And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command,
6Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
7Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
8The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
9And on the pedestal these words appear:
10My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
11Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!
12Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
13Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
14The lone and level sands stretch far away." --
Notes
1] Shelley evidently wrote this sonnet at Marlow in friendly competition with Horace Smith, whose own sonnet of the same name was published Feb. 1, 1818, also in The Examiner, no. 527, p. 73:
In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desart knows: --
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
"The wonders of my hand." -- The City's gone, --
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, -- and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
5] lip Bod. Shelley MS e.4; lips 1819
6] Lines 6-8 pose some difficulty, but "survive" (7) must be a transitive verb whose object is "The hand" and "the heart" (8). The "passions" on Ozymandias' face, that is, survive or live on after both hand and heart. "The hand that mocked them" seems to be the sculptor's hand, delineating the vainglory of his subject in "these lifeless things"; and "the heart that fed" must be Ozymandias' own, feeding on (perhaps) its own arrogance. Kelvin Everest and Geoffrey Matthews suggest that line 8 ends with an ellipsis: "and the heart that fed [them]" (that is, those same passions that are the referent of the pronoun "them" governed by "mocked" (The Poems of Shelley, II: 1817-1819 [London: Pearson, 2000]: 311).
9] these words appear: 1819; this legend clear Bodl. Shelley MS e.4.
10] Ozymandias: Osymandias, Greek name for the Egyptian king Rameses II (1304-1237 BC). Diodorus Siculus, in his Library of History (trans. C. H. Oldfather, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 303 [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961]: I, 47), records the inscription on the pedestal of his statue (at the Ramesseum, on the other side of the Nile river from Luxor) as "King of Kings am I, Osymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works."
12] Nothing beside remains: 1819; No thing remains beside. Bodl. Shelley MS. e.4.
Composition date: 26 December 1817 - 28 December 1817
Form: Sonnet
Rhyme: ababacdcedefef
參考資料：