106歐麗娟.doc

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "106歐麗娟.doc"

寅晏施
9 years ago
Views:

2 A Study on Xue Bao-chai: Some Fundamental Problems of Character s Discourse in The Dream of the Red Chamber Ou Li-Chuan Associate Professor, Department of Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University Abstract This article discusses some core issues in the character discourse on Xue Bao-chai: the episodes of the jia-huo (Xue s transferring blame to Lin) event, the Jin-chuan ( ) case, and the Iou San-jie ( ) and Liou Xiang-lian ( ) case. I also reinterpret the hidden meaning of the verse even heartless is fascinating ( ). Emphasizing that these segmented episodes should be put in a comprehensive and consistent context, I argue against a well-known view attributing Xue Bao-chai a negative character. I contend that she is rather a secular humanist, then discuss some reasons why the pro Dai, contra Chai attitude becomes dominant among the readers and interpreters of The Dream of the Red Chamber: Besides readers sympathy for the weak, a psychology of mask-phobia also plays an key role, wherein readers project their own experience into Ciao Xue-qin ( ) s differing description techniques on Dai and Chai. On the whole, I contend that The Dream of the Red Chamber is too often treated implicitly as a monotonous narrative with a single value judgment, which supposedly represents the author s aesthetic and emotional preferences. As a consequence, many criticisms about the characters of The Dream of the Red Chamber tend to be extreme and partial, especially the discourses about Xue. By contrast, I propose that the novel is a polyphonic narrative, where characters are objectively discovered, organically developed, 144

3 and described with art. Wherein characters complement and contrast each other but there is not necessarily opposition between them, let alone the author s approval or criticizing. Keywords: The Dream of the Red Chamber, Xue Bao-chai, Lin Dai-yu, even heartless is fascinating ( ) 145

4 146

7 C. T. Hsia

8 Edward Morgan Forster, flat character round character Aspects of the Novel

10 Henry James

20 Freud, On Narcissism: An Introduction (1914), A General Selection from the Works of Sigmund Freud. John Rickman, M. D.(New York: Doubleday, 1957), p

28 H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr the worldly structures

31 narrative sentence descriptive sentence determinative sentence composite sentence

32 pq p q p q 67 p q q p p p 68 p q

44 186 Anthony C. Yu

45 187 Edward Morgan Forster, identify

46 188 8 Henry James

47 92 Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin, Northrop Frye,

48 organic unity Andrew H. Plaks

50 Henry James Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin Problems of Dostoevsky Poetics Edward Morgan Forster Aspects of the Novel Northrop Frye Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays Andrew H. Plaks H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr C. T. Hsia The Classic Chinese Novel: A Critical Introduction Anthony C. Yu Rereading the Stone: Desire and The Making of Fiction in Dream of the Red Chamber

221-252

221-252 BIBLID 0254-4466(2002)20:1 pp. 221-252 20 1 91 6 * 221 222 20 1 Edward Morgan Forster, 1879-1970 flat character round character 1 2 3 4 1 Edward Morgan Forster 1990 92 2 1 102-103 3 1 104 4 1 99 223 5