英文摘要 |
Born during the middle part of the 20th century, Hanif Kureishi (1954- ) is a novelist experiencing all the blessings and following chaos of the sea change of British society. His second novel The Black Album, though not highly acclaimed for its narrative forms or artistic creativeness, is ambitious in its rendering of various chaotic conditions in Britain. With the Rushdie Affair at its backdrop and revolving around the protagonist’s quest for belonging among different reference groups, The Black Album represents the formation of (impossible) communities of various kinds, be it of Islamic fundamentalism, canonical literature, pop culture or love. This paper mainly considers The Black Album in the light of Jean Luc-Nancy’s idea of community, and appropriates related ideas in chaos theory to illuminate that under a seemingly linear plot the novelist highlights deviations of belief systems and communal coordination. In so doing The Black Album goes beyond positive identity politics to attest that a community only comes into being as it is unworking. |