"The National Longing for Form"
Timothy Brennan－from Nation and Narration
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| Kate Liu 10/11, '96 |
| purpose: 承接Anderson, Lukacs, Bakhtin, Benjamin的理論，談小說如何想像、建構國家。談論小說重點在１）寫實小說的複合性(composite
nature)２）小說與史詩和故事的不同３）現代小說及第三世界小說處理「國家vs.流放」的不同。 |
| I. nation: |
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its myths, as both "the modern nation-state and...something
more ancient and nebulous"
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the national question(nationalism dead or not): nationalism
vs. local affiliation and (capitalist or working class) internationalism
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postwar nations and migration to the imperial center: anti-colonialism,
cultural pluralism at 'home' and expatriates
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English studies－refused to place the fact of domination
in a comprehensive approach to its literary material.
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invention of nation: of tradition (history and symbols)
★ two 'anti-death processes'p. 51 (R. Debray) Cf.
Balibar & Bhabha
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populist and Romantic nationalism p. 53－people, folk, working
class
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e.g. Rousseau's 'people' and civic virtue㻖rom middle-class
liberties to lower classes,
Herder's 'primordial and inalienable roots
populist trends in Romantic poetry (Wordsworth)
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| II. Nation and novel |
－sociological plurals + heteroglossia
--★objectifying the nation's composite nature
(language, calendrical coincidences, readership, social classes) p. 49-51 |
| Novel and epic |
－political view vs. ritual view p. 50
--novel directs itself to 'open-ended present' |
key event in the development of the novel:
Lukacs－the French Revolution
Bakhtins－that period when 'the world becomes polyglot
once and for all ..'
Brennan－B cannot explain on-going heteroglossia
[modernist] Novelist vs. Storyteller(Benjamin)--
communal/oral vs. Isolated/written; memory or
not; with moral vs. meaning of life; the miraculous or not)★←→Brennan－one
trend in Third World novels is close to storytelling as defined by B p.
55
★Third World novel－a cosmopolitan form, to play
a national role only in an international arena p. 56, examples?
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Phases of nation－
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imperialism, 'empire's old clothes' wore by anti-colonial
elite; nation-state as "only the by-product of the conditions created by
European exploration; two emperial legacies: 'world' languages, international
communications
Exile vs. nationalism two kinds of exile:
archaic,
literary-- banishment � wander exodus
modern political－ deportation immigrant refugee flight
3 kinds 3rd World novels about nation--
1. attack independence, 2. Anti-colonial work, 3. Cosmopolitan explanations
of the 'lower depths' or the 'fantastic unknown'
★one trend--a simultaneous recognition of nationhood and an alienation
from it.
議題：見★；小說的複合體一定代表國家嗎？
例子：Fanon－KMT; Balibar－In Country; Brennan－Midnight's
Children |
