敘事與對話激盪出的狂想：由對話式敘事解構約翰．福爾斯之《蛆》

A Whim of Narration and Dialogue: Deconstructing the Dialogical Narrative of John Fowles' A Maggot

約翰‧福爾斯（John Fowles）著於1985 年的小說《蛆》（A Maggot）（陸譯：幻象）一直是當代英國文學研究的重點，為碩士班文學課程帶來活力。這個充斥各種證據的作品與福爾斯以往條理清晰、文筆流暢的順時敘事結構風格不同，挑戰讀者是否能拼湊出故事的來龍去脈，彷彿真實生活常見的情況一樣，無法在疑點重重的事件中找出明白的解答或啟示。書中內容結構多變，有報章新聞，也有口供證詞，與往日作品的宗教式詮釋及現代讀者對科學、科幻題材的理解均大異其趣，特別適合作為解構式寫作的分析題材。比起後現代式作品，本書的整體格式與結構在維多利亞時代晚期的神祕及哥德風格作品中更為常見。此種寫作手法在故事情節與人物之間留下模糊不明的詮釋空間，使福爾斯得以營造更深沉的意境及含意。讀者必須直接由人物對話中理解內容，加上前述的安排方式，所形成的敘事手法引發讀者做出曖昧不明、互相矛盾，無法構成一致目的或意義的詮釋。本文將以解構對話及敘事成分的方式探討這本風格獨特的小說，並彰顯小說的歷史背景對比現時對未來的看法之間的矛盾，目的為重新審視這部以意義不明且互相矛盾的手法鋪陳故事的著名作品。

Written in 1985, John Fowles' A Maggot, continues to enliven graduate literature classrooms as a staple for Contemporary English Literature studies. Stylistically different from the author's other works, this collection of evidence—rather than clear, smooth chronological narrative structure—challenges the reader to piece together the story and then, as is so common in real life, to find no clear answers or revelations as to the events in question. The structure of the contents, from newspaper articles to legal depositions, with an opposition between the religious interpretation of a bygone era and the modern scientific/science fiction interpretation of the contemporary reader lends itself to an analysis of a deconstructive approach. The general format and structure of the novel are more commonly found among late Victorian mystery and gothic style writings than in the works of a Post-modern writer. And yet this aids Fowles in finding depth and diverse meanings in the possible interpretations and ambiguities in the plot and with the characters. This and the reader's need to gain understanding straight from dialogue represents a narrative approach leading to ambiguous and conflicting possible interpretations which fails to unify any definitive sense of purpose or meaning. This paper addresses this unique novel by way of deconstructing the dialogue and narrative and highlighting the conflict which encompasses both the historical past of the novel with the insight of the future of the present in an attempt to re-examine this well-known work in terms of how the story is communicated in terms of conflicting and unclear meanings.