What Has He Learned? : The Narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's ＂William Wilson＂ and ＂The Man of the Crowd＂

他覺察了什麼？：愛倫．坡短篇小說〈威廉．威爾森〉和〈人群中的人〉的敘事者

張家麟(Chang Chia-Lin)

《華人前瞻研究》 17卷2期 (2021/11) Pp. 91-104

摘要

The paper examines Edgar Allan Poe's two short stories ＂William Wilson＂ and ＂The Man of the Crowd＂ from the perspectives of narratology and psychoanalysis to see how the author arranges the story and represents the hero's mental activities and responses towards major events. Poe adopts the first-person narrative point of view and ＂the last begins first＂ narrative scheme: the hero recalls and reports what he has experienced. Along with the development of the narrative, the reader is gradually conscious of being involved in an ＂abnormal＂ event told by an ＂abnormal＂ (albeit reliable) person. William Wilson is psychotic, while the detective-liker follower in ＂The Man of the Crowd＂ acts like a pervert. Poe's narrative strategy creates tremendous tension between weird characters and unsolved plots, which on the one hand depicts the dark side of the human mind in its full depth, and marks the characteristics of horror stories and detective stories on the other.

關鍵字

Edgar Allan Poe ； narratology ； psychoanalysis ； psychotic ； pervert

並列摘要

本文從敘事學與精神分析的角度探討十九世紀美國作家埃德加．愛倫．坡（Edgar Allan Poe）的兩篇短篇小說〈威廉．威爾森〉（“William Wilson＂）和〈人群中的人〉（“The Man of the Crowd＂），檢視作者如何呈現主角的心理機轉、對外界事物的感知、解讀和反應，以及情節的安排和推動。在這兩篇短篇小說中，作者皆採第一人稱的敘事觀點以及倒敘法：故事的主角回想、整理、重述發生在自己身上的事情。隨著故事的開展，讀者逐漸被捲入一個「不正常的人」所描述的「不正常的體驗」，前者為精神病（psychotic），後者則接近變態（pervert）。作者所採用的敘事手法讓劇情在怪異的角色與懸疑的情節之間擺盪，深度刻畫人性的幽微之處，也塑造出恐怖小說和偵探小說的趣味和戲劇張力。

並列關鍵字

愛倫．坡 ； 敘事學 ； 精神分析 ； 精神病 ； 變態