《黑暗之心》的目标读者与康拉德的“理想读者”  

Heart of Darkness’s Target Reader and Conrad’s Ideal Reader

作　　者：王丽亚[1] Wang Liya(Department of Beijing Foreign Studies University,Beijing 100089,China)

机构地区：[1]北京外国语大学英语学院

出　　处：《外国文学研究》2021年第3期98-109,共12页Foreign Literature Studies

摘　　要：康拉德的《黑暗之心》在20世纪的批评与阐释中已是评论家和理论家们的"战场"和"试验地"。作品在新世纪以后依然引发新的议题:集中于马洛的叙述风格,一部分评论家们认为作品为"精英读者"而创作,意味着康拉德有意疏远大众文化和"普通读者";侧重于题材上的"帝国罗曼司"特点,不少评论家指出,作品的"目标读者"恰恰是当时英国文学市场上的"普通读者"。不过从出版语境反观,通俗题材以及相应的读者仅仅是他用于构建"理想读者"的障眼法。以马洛作为主要叙述者,将故事中的聆听场景作为一个邀约机制,康拉德引导读者从"普通读者"的阅读立场深入关于故事意义的象征阅读;这一形式策略以及相应的阅读进程暗含了康拉德寄寓于"普通读者"中的"理想读者":即,以通俗题材吸引普通读者进入故事世界,通过"嵌套结构"、"聆听场景"、"延缓解码"、象征叙述等一系列手法引导读者超越起初囿于通俗故事和出版语境的阅读期待。Heart of Darkness has been a "battlefield" and "testing ground" for critics and theorists in different lines of inquries throughout the 20 th century. Still, it seems to have triggered discussions over new issues since the start of the new millennium. As far as Marlow’s narrative style is concerned, some critics contend that the novella was written for "elite readers," which implies that Conrad deliberately attempts to distance himself from popular culture and "common readers." With regard to its emphasis on "imperial romance" in subject matter, many critics point out that the novella’s "target readers" are exactly the "common readers" on the British literary market at that time. A retrospective look at the context of the novella’s serial publication, however, shows that Conrad merely used its popular subject and intended audience as a ploy in grooming his "ideal readers." By using Marlow as the principal narrator and setting up the listening scene as an invitational event, Conrad guides his readers through a reading of "common readers" into a symbolic reading of the story’s aesthetic and thematic implications. Such a stylistic strategy and the relevant reading progression are implicitly intended for the "ideal readers" among "common readers." In other words, all he wants to accomplish is using popular subject to lure "common readers" into the world of the story and, then, orienting them, with a series of devices, such as "embedded structure," "listening scene," "delayed decoding," and symbolic narration, to go beyond their initial reading expectations conditioned by popular stories and the context of serial publication.

关 键 词：《黑暗之心》 目标读者 理想读者 修辞策略 阅读进程 

分 类 号：I561.074[文学—其他各国文学]