走下神坛的英雄-论电影《贝奥武夫》对史诗的创造性改编_英语论文

The Hero off the Altar—— On the Film’s Creative Adaptation of the Epic Beowulf

摘要

《贝奥武夫》是完成于约750年左右的英雄叙事长诗，是以古英语记载的传说中最古老的一篇，主题严肃恢弘，叙述了贝奥武甫的英雄行为和其对文化、民族意义的重大事迹。2007年，著名导演罗伯特·泽米吉斯将它改编为同名电影。影片播映后，主人公贝奥武甫的英雄形象一直是影评人热议的话题，其焦点集中在贝奥武甫更具人性、理性、甚至缺点的英雄形象上, 而这一缺憾恰恰反映了这一英雄形象的真实性和必然性。影片突破了传统商业片将“英雄神化”的做法，同时也没有了传统商业片中对于人性的乐观主义看法；同时，影片一反传统史诗中简单的“善/恶”、“勇敢/懦弱”的二元对立，对史诗的主题内涵进行了创造性改编，赋予了英雄更真实的情感，使英雄走下了神坛，展现了新时代下英雄观的内涵。

学术界对于史诗《贝奥武甫》的研究由来已久，大多从英雄主义、宗教思想、艺术特色等方面加以研究，但鲜有学者关注史诗与电影的对比研究，少数学者虽然也开始关注两者的异同，但多从电影手法和时代背景加以比较，缺乏整体的梳理。本文将以英雄观的嬗变为切入点，通过电影和史诗的对比，挖掘影片对史诗的创造性改编，用历史的眼光重点研究其中英雄观的嬗变，并将之置于当代社会背景和道德观下加以讨论和评断。

关键词：贝奥武夫；英雄主义；创造性改编

Abstract

Beowulf, a long heroic narrative poem, which was completed in about 750 AD, is recorded as the oldest legend in old English. It focuses on the serious matter by describing Beowulf's heroic acts and events with great significant to its culture and nation. In 2007, Director Robert Zemeckis adapted it to the film with the same name. After the film was aired, the hero Beowulf's heroic image had always been a hot topic for film critics. They focus on the humane, rational heroic image with even weakness, which just reflects the authenticity and inevitability of the heroic image. The film breaks the traditional commercial films’ approach of “hero myth”, and unlike traditional commercial films, it also gets rid of the optimistic views of human nature. In addition, in contrast to traditional epic with a simple binary opposition of good/evil, brave/cowardly, the film has creatively adapted the epic’s theme by endowing the hero with more real emotion, making the hero step off the altar, and hence shows the new connotation of the concept of hero.

There is a long history for the academic studies on the epic Beowulf. Most of them study it from the aspects of heroism, religious thought and artistic characteristics. However, few scholars are concerned with comparative study between the epic and the movie. Some scholars are beginning to focus on the similarities and differences between the two, but most of them just compare them in film techniques and social background, while lacking overall arrangement. The paper will focus on the evolution of heroism as a starting point. Through a comparison of the movie and the epic, it will analyze the creative adaptation of the epic by the film especially by focusing on the evolution of concept of hero in a historical point of view, and discuss and evaluate it in terms of social background and moral standards. 

Keywords: Beowulf  heroism  creative adaptation