ABSTRACT

This article examines three British television plays which draw upon political and aesthetic radicalism to examine the Cold War traitor. John le Carré’s The End of the Line (1970) uses a traitor’s interrogation to create an absurdist vison of Cold War espionage whilst Dennis Potter’s Traitor (1971) uses experimental flashback techniques to explore the motives and moral ambiguities surrounding treachery. Although le Carré’s later novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974) closes off radical possibilities offered by these plays, Potter’s Blade on the Feather can be read as a riposte, redeploying the former’s generic and heritage conventions to newly subversive ends.

摘要

本文考察了三部英国电视剧，它们借鉴了政治和美学激进主义来审视冷战叛徒。约翰·勒·卡雷（John leCarré）的《线的尽头》（The End of the Line，1970）使用叛徒的讯问来营造冷战间谍活动的荒谬视域，而丹尼斯·波特（Dennis Potter）的《叛徒》（Traitor）（1971）使用实验性的倒叙技术来探索围绕叛逆行为的动机和道德歧义。尽管勒·卡雷（LeCarré）后来的小说《修补匠裁缝的士兵间谍》（Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy，1974）消除了这些剧本提供的激进可能性，但波特的《羽毛之刃》仍可被视为回教派，将前者的常规和传统重新部署到新的颠覆性目的。