The Space of Writing: John Barth’s Lost in the Funhouse

書寫空間：約翰．巴斯的《歡樂宮迷走記》

張碧蓉(Pi-Jung Chang)

《中科大學報》 2卷1期 (2015/12) Pp. 23-49

https://doi.org/10.6902/JNTUST.201512_2(1).0002

摘要

約翰．巴斯的實驗性小說《歡樂宮迷走記》一書，常被認為是反映後現代那種沉浸於自我反思的代表作。巴斯的確認為後現代寫作面臨窮途末路的困境，但他的小說並非陷於自戀式的喃喃自語，而是力圖在枯竭的後現代語境中尋找創新的泉源。本文以二十世紀一些具影響力的文學理論為基礎，來閱讀此小說如何顯現巴斯身為作者的焦慮及自我突破。第一部分從語言本質探討作品中瀰漫的癱瘓情節，而這種無力的書寫卻反諷式地在不可能性中提供書寫的可能條件。第二部分從小說的循環結構及疊層框架敘述來探討這種書寫的可能。小說中各個看似獨立又合為一體的故事互相呼應，讓意義在過去與未來、現實與虛幻交織的「互文空間」中對話激盪。第三部分以作者身分理論，來探討小說中如何處理作者身分及權威地位的關係。此小說出現於宣稱「作者已死」的年代，但不管在主題上或結構上，卻在在反映巴斯企圖喚回作者的努力。本文試圖以文學網絡空間及書寫的可能條件為觀點，邀請讀者進到這座文學歡樂宮，來審視巴斯對於小說書寫困境的體認與因應。

關鍵字

約翰．巴斯 ； 《歡樂宮迷走記》 ； 自我反思 ； 互文空間 ； 作者身分

並列摘要

John Barth’s overtly experimental novel, Lost in the Funhouse, is widely regarded as postmodern fiction that indulges in self-reflexive narratives. In fact, his fiction does not lapse into sheer luxury of self-regarding narratives. Acknowledging the problem of exhaustion and used-upness in postmodern writing, Barth chooses alternative by turning exhaustion against itself to make something new and valid. Based on some twentieth-century literary theorists who have influenced both contemporary practice of literature and literary criticism, this essay aims to read Lost in the Funhouse by examining Barth’s anxiety and breakthrough as an author. The first part, referring to theories about essence of literary language, discusses the paralysis in narcissistic dilemma displayed in the text which ironically lays the ground of possibility for the impossibility of writing. The second part approaches this ground of possibility by focusing on the novel’s framed narratives which echo one another and are operating in the milieu of intertextual space where past and present, reality and fiction intersect. In light of theories about authorship, the third part reads the novel as a meditation upon the relationship between authorship and authority. While this novel is written in an age when “the author” is declared dead, the author-character is thematic and structural concerns in this novel, which reveals Barth’s attempt to restore the author in twentieth-century fiction. Aiming to read this novel in terms of literary spatiality and conditions of possibility, this essay invites the reader to enter this literary funhouse and discern how Barth recognizes and comes to terms with the exhausted possibilities of novel writing.

並列關鍵字

John Barth ； Lost in the Funhouse ； self-reflexivity ； intertextual space ； authorship

參考文獻

Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquisr. Ed. Michael Holquist. Texas: U of Texas P.

Barth, John. (1984). The Friday Book: Essays and Other Non-Fiction. New York: Putnam’s.

Barth, John. (1988). Lost in the Funhouse. 1968. New York: Anchor Books.

Barthes, Roland. (1977). Image-Music-Text. Trans. Stephen Heath. London: Collins.

Barthes, Roland. (1984). Writing Degree Zero. Trans. Annette Lavers and Colin Smith.London: Routledge.