Yong hui er ming: lun Kanglade xiao shuo zhong zi wo de yan bian he que li

M.Phil.This study purports to capture the quintessential dialectic of the self in Conrad’s fiction. Affirmed by Conrad in his critical and creative formulations of “solidarity” and “one of us,” the other in Conrad’s fiction does not afford mere moral sustenance for characters who find themselves estranged in life, but is wielding formative, positively sovereign power over the making of the self. Such determining influence possessed by the other is most emphatically seen in the temperamental proclivity or even compulsion of the Conradian protagonists to identify with the other that is particularised in their consciousness, or their virtual subjection to the other whose presence and claims must for various reasons be obliged. Nonetheless, in either identification or subordination, the protagonists would undergo a moral and spiritual transformation that sees a surreptitious inversion of their original attitudes occasioned by their qualitative ascensions to more encompassing consciousnesses, and an eventual chafing of vassalage and inscription of the self as a sovereign subject. This study traces and theorises the teleological self-becoming trajectories of the Conradian characters in Conrad’s representative fiction, viz. “The Secret Sharer,” Lord Jim and Under Western Eyes, and explores how these vassal-selves accede, or fail to accede, to a more individuated selfhood through their identification with or subordination to lord-others. To theorise their accession to sovereign selfhood, I draw on Hegel’s genealogy of self-consciousness and argue that the self-other dialectic in Conrad’s fiction reenacts the classic Hegelian scenario of “Lordship and Bondage,” in which the selves, forced to confront and comply with the demands imposed by their significant others, come to fashion themselves and become increasingly self-conscious.This study consists of an introduction and three chapters. The Introduction discusses the importance of the other in Conrad’s art and life and theorises the individuating trajectories pursued by Conrad’s dialectically constituted heroes with reference to Hegel’s theory of self-consciousness and his inspired and spirited lord and bondsman dialectic. My readings of Conrad’s fiction begin with “The Secret Sharer,” which I regard as an archetypal narrative of self-becoming for its perfection in structure and dramatisation of two eternal themes for humanity: man’s outgrowing of pure subjectivity and search for an alter ego. My expositions on Lord Jim and Under Western Eyes fall on Chapters Two and Three respectively. Belying its omnipresence of human solidarities, Lord Jim is a misleading tale that sabotages and problematises all dialectical self-making efforts. Populated by coercion, falsehoods and misapprehensions, Under Western Eyes bears witness to a number of triumphant individuations, the most representative of which being borne out by its protagonist Razumov and the teacher-narrator. The contrapuntality between Lord Jim and Under Western Eyes and enacted by the dialectic within the individual works allows us a glimpse into the workings of Conrad’s antagonistic imagination.本論文旨在闡發康拉德小說人物「附麗他人」的典型自我意識，並探究其根源、衍變及脫胎獨立的過程。康拉德本人曾提出「人我一體」與「我等之一」的主張，此落實於其創作即表現為他者對自我的主宰。康拉德作品裏的他者不但為孤獨無依的主角給予精神上的撫慰，更會主導後者的人格塑造。此類主角或是認同他人，將自我意識寄託於他者身上；或是在人際關係中因為種種原因不得不虛以委蛇、勉強求合。然而，無論是發自真心認同抑或附庸他者，這些附麗者均會在與他者的真實接觸和相處中遭受情感衝擊。從這些衝擊中，部分人物會產生覺悟，而隨覺悟而來的道德與精神覺醒，將引領他們擺脫情感上的牽絆，用晦而明，成為自我的主人。本文以康拉德三部作品——短篇小說〈密友〉、長篇小說《占爵爺》和《在西方的眼眸下》為研究對象，剖析不同人物實現自我的心路歷程，並溯源其成敗得失。為求明晰自我與他者關係的變化消長，本文將拾慧黑格爾關於自我意識起源的論述，指出小說中自我與他者的對待與滲透與黑格爾理論中「主奴辯證」的契合之處，以發微闡幽，引出新見。如同「主奴關係」中的奴隸，這些被奴役的自我在他者的主宰下，得以發現和塑造自己，漸而獲得心靈上的覺醒。本文除緒論外共分三個章節。緒論闡述他者於康拉德其人其文的重要地位，並援引黑格爾關於自我意識與「主奴辯證」的論述，勾勒康拉德小說人物自我蛻變的軌跡。本文之文本細讀部分以〈密友〉此一討論自我實現的經典文本開始。〈密友〉結構完整，寄寓雋永，兼論及人性兩大永恆主題——人擺脫自我中心後與世界的初次接觸，及對生命裏另一半的感應與追尋。本文第二和第三章分別對《占爵爺》及《在西方的眼眸下》作深入論述。本文以為，《占爵爺》表面描繪人我同心團結，實質卻是一「詭詐」之書，無情揭露自我衍變與確立的失效與虛妄。反之，《在西方的眼眸下》描繪的世界充斥逼迫、謊言與曲解，人物在此卻能夠自生人性，確立自我，主角拉祖莫夫與身為語文教授的敘事者即為當中的佼佼者。《占爵爺》和《在西方的眼眸下》的正反對照，與兩本小說自身敘事邏輯展示的正反推移，正印證康拉德恢宏而精深的「逆向想像」。Li, Hoi Kei.Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2018.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-196).Abstracts also in Chinese.Title from PDF title page (viewed on 05, August, 2020).Li, Hoi Kei