《帕迪杜街车站》中的杂合性_英语论文

Hybridity in Perdido Street Station

摘要

英国著名小说家柴纳·米耶维的《帕迪杜街车站》描述了一个不同种族混杂而居，各族文化相互交融的世界。小说采用第一人称和第三人称全知视角相互交织的方法，为我们展现了科学家以萨和他的朋友们携手合作，共同战胜城市的威胁者魔蛾的故事。自发表以来，诸多批评家对小说的体裁归属和其中蕴含的革命思想等角度进行解读。然而，对于小说中的重要主题——杂合性的研究却并不多见。以后殖民理论家霍米·巴巴的杂合性理论为主要依托，本论文对《帕迪杜街车站》中人物、城市叙事和小说体裁这三个方面进行解读。这三个方面较为全面地反映了处在交流与冲突下的文化现状，构建出了霍米·巴巴用以描述文化相互协商渗透的第三空间。

本论文包括三章：第一章关注小说中的三个主要人物：甲虫人林恩，鸟人以萨，以及织蛛。通过对这三个人物杂合性探究，阐释个体身上所具有的杂合性。第二章对小说城市生活叙事的杂合性进行分析，分别从城市的地理空间和文化空间出发，分析整个城市所体现的杂合性。第三章则对小说的体裁进行分析，探究融合了科幻小说和奇幻小说元素的小说本身所具有的杂合性。

关键词：柴纳·米耶维；《帕迪杜街车站》；霍米·巴巴；杂合性

Abstract

The British novelist China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station describes a world where different species live together with their cultures blended with each other. Combining the first-person perspective with the third-person omniscient perspective, the novel tells a story about how the scientist Isaac and his friends work together to vanquish the monster – the slake-moth. Since the publication of Perdido Street Station, many critics have focused on the classification of the novel’s genre and its revolutionary ideas. However, in terms of the main theme of the novel – hybridity, we can hardly find any relevant studies. Mainly employing the theory on hybridity proposed by Homi K. Bhabha, a renowned post-colonialist thinker, this paper tries to fill in the blank by analysing the novel in terms of its characters, narratives of urban life and genre. These three aspects reflect the evolution of culture in this novel through interactions and conflicts, which further dictates a chronotype that can be considered as a third space, a conception also put forward by Bhabha to describe the negotiation of culture. 

This thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter focuses on the images of three main characters in this novel. The hybridity as manifested by individuals is analyzed through the Khepri Lin, the garuda Yagharek and the Weaver. The second chapter discusses the hybridity of the narratives of urban life from the perspectives of both geographical space and cultural space. The third chapter explores the hybridity from a formalistic viewpoint, namely the genre of so-called New Weird that interweaves the elements of fantasy fiction with those of science fiction.

Key Words: China Miéville; Perdido Street Station; Homi K. Bhabha; hybridity

Contents

Acknowledgements i

English Abstract ii

Chinese Abstract iii

Table of Contents iii

Introduction 1

Chapter One Hybridity of the Characters of the Novel 7

1.1 Lin: Hybridity in Physiology 7

1.2 Yagharek: Hyrbridity in Psychology 10

1.3 Weaver: Hybridity in a Symbolic Sense 15

Chapter Two Hybridity of the Narratives of Urban Life 17

2.1 Geographical Urban Space 17

2.2 Cultural Urban Space 19

Chapter Three Hybridity of the Genre of the Novel 23

3.1 Elements of Fantasy Fiction 23

3.2 Influence of Science Fiction 25

3.3 New Weird – A Hybrid Genre 27

Conclusion 29

Works Cited 31