Tony Webster’s change of self-knowledge in The sense of an ending Abstract Julian Barnes (1946-) is one of the important British novelists. In October 2011, his work The sense of an ending won the Booker Prize, an important literary prize in today's Britain and around the world. The novel, consistent with the theme of Julian Barnes's previous novels, though in short length, is concerned with history, life and death, time and memory as well as philosophy with concise language. Thanks to his distinctive writing style, an ordinary memoir turns into an extraordinary novel so that it attracts thousands of readers. Julian Barnes has his own distinct insights into history, which is particularly striking. As Justin Cartwright points out in The Observer. “The sense of an ending is a short novel, but one that packs in a lot. Full of insight and intelligence, it is in some ways a more intellectual version of Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach, touching on the same themes of youthful sex, inhibition, class, regret and false recollection.” This paper will reinterpret the novel from the perspective of Tony Webster. It is not difficult to find that in Tony’s memories of the past, his self-awareness exhibits different characteristics at different stages. In high school he is not interested in life and jealous of his friend Adrian. In his university, unlike other boys, he just can not easily attract girls. His girlfriend Veronica breaks up with him and becomes Adrian’s girlfriend, which gives him a sense of inferiority. Later, he suffers from porce and lived a mediocre life. He used to regard himself as a victim emotionally, but finally when he discovers the truth of Adrian’s suicide, he finds out that he is actually a victimizer. Dramatic changes of self-knowledge arouses a great deal of remorse and guilty in his heart. In conclusion, Tony experiences a series of changes of self-knowledge since high school, and the most dramatic one is from a victim to a victimizer.47610
Keywords: Julian Barnes; The sense of an ending; Tony; self-knowledge
论《终结的感觉》中托尼·韦伯斯特自我认知的转变
摘要朱利安·巴恩斯(1946-)是当今英国重要的小说家之一。2011 年10 月,他凭借小说《终结的意义》(The Sense of and Ending),将当今英国乃至全世界最重要的文学奖项之一“布克奖”揽入怀中。这部小说一如既往地秉承了朱利安·巴恩斯的写作主题,以短小的篇幅,凝练的语言谈及了历史,生死,时间,哲学和记忆等主题。他独具匠心的写作风格将一部平凡的回忆录写成了令读者爱不释手的小说。朱利安·巴恩斯对历史和哲学的独到见解尤其令人震撼。贾斯汀·卡特赖特(Justin Cartwright)在《观察家报》(The Observer)上指出:“《终结的感觉》虽然篇幅不长,却内容丰富。书中四处可见作者的洞察力和智慧,它在某种意义上是伊恩·麦克尤恩《在切希尔海滩》这部小说的升华。它触及了年轻时期的性爱、禁忌、课堂、悔恨和虚假记忆这些主题。”本文将从小说主人公托尼·韦伯斯特的角度重新解读这部作品。细读该小说,不难发现主人公在回忆过去的时候,他的自我认知在不同阶段呈现出了不同的特点。他在高中时期对生活提不起兴趣,到了大学发现自己无法像别的男生一样轻易获得异性的青睐,女朋友和他分手之后又和他的好朋友艾德里安在一起,这使他颇受打击。工作之后他先后经历了结婚、离婚,过着平庸的生活。他原本觉得自己在感情上一直是受害者,然后最终当他发现好朋友艾德里安自杀原因的时候,发现自己原来是施害者。托尼自我认知的急剧转变让他内心激起了极大的不安与愧疚。总的来说,托尼的自我认知从高中时代起就一直发生着变化,其中最显著的一个变化是从受害者到施害者。 论《终结的感觉》中托尼·韦伯斯特自我认知的转变:http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_49773.html