Genre, Narrative, and History in Timothy Findley's "The Wars"

提摩西‧芬德利《戰爭》中的文類、敘事與歷史

10.6258/bcla.2010.72.05

王梅春(Mei-Chuen Wang)

提摩西‧芬德利 ； 《戰爭》 ； 歷史書寫 ； 傳記 ； 文類逾越 ； Timothy Findley ； "The Wars" ； history writing ； biography ； genre transgression

臺大文史哲學報

72期（2010 / 05 / 01）

129 - 151

英文

在後現代主義對歷史進行知識論與本體論的質疑之前，提摩西‧芬德利的《戰爭》已開始檢視歷史書寫隱含的意識型態前提。評論家已經注意到芬德利小說中對歷史再現所依賴的寫實設定提出的質疑，但芬德利如何經由逾越文類規範以擾亂傳統歷史的信條，例如能夠忠實與客觀再現過去的宣告，則尚未被深入探討。這篇論文探討芬德利如何利用傳記這個文類鋪陳主角的故事，卻在同時講述一位無名研究者如何收集與調查關於主角的歷史資料，這兩個故事的交錯並陳，是作者的後設小說手法，用來質疑歷史與傳記擬真的書寫信念。論文的重心將放在分析作者運用何種敘事策略達成顛覆文類傳統以及模糊歷史與傳記文學之間的分界。

Timothy Findley's ”The Wars” (1977) started to investigate the underlying ideological assumptions about the writing of history before the rise of the postmodern epistemological and ontological questioning about history. Its problematization of realist presumptions of historical representation has been analysed by commentators, but the way Findley engages in genre transgression in order to unsettle history's claims to authenticity and objectivity has not received adequate critical attention. This essay is concerned with how he employs the biographic form for his protagonist's story but juxtaposes it with a nameless researcher's collection of information about him and investigation into related historical documents as a metafictional device to problematize the writing of biography and history as mimetic representation. The focus will be on the narrative strategies used to achieve genre transgression and blur the distinction between biography and history.

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