ABSTRACT:Drawing from recent studies on authorial attachment by Dawson (2013) and Korthals Altes (2014), the article revises the notions of narrative authority and gnomic statements. I claim that authorial concerns, instead of manifesting themselves in imposing intrusions, may take the form of agential indecision, reflecting the ultimate imbalance between lived experience and its artistic framing. As a narrative emblem of this relativist stance toward knowledge and authority, I deal with focalizers who assume authorial postures in their present-tense internal discourse and by doing so juxtapose existentialist immediacy of experience with artistic maneuvering. The ultimate locus for authorial ethos without authoritativeness is found in the gnomic statement that is framed by free indirect discourse and ambivalent pronominal reference. My main test case is Michael Cunningham’s novel By Nightfall (2010), but I also discuss its intertextual networking with Madame Bovary, Death in Venice, and Disgrace. In its keen attention to gnomic statements, Cohn’s canonical analysis of Death in Venice serves as a methodological inspiration. I suggest that By Nightfall offers an unconventional reading of Mann’s novella by drawing an analogy between the protagonists of these two novels: the self-deprecation and aesthetic perfectionism of Cunningham’s protagonist preoccupies the very narrative discourse that nevertheless refers to him in the third-person, suggesting that also Aschenbach may have more narrative control over his downfall than Cohn is ready to allow him. My cross-fertilizing analyses, moving between canonized readings and contemporary examples, demonstrate a relativist stance toward gnomic truths, a stance finding its expression in the narrative double exposure of the figural and the authorial.

中文翻译：

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侏儒空间：迈克尔·坎宁安 (Michael Cunningham) 的《夜幕降临》中声音之间的作者精神

摘要：本文借鉴 Dawson (2013) 和 Korthals Altes (2014) 最近对作者依恋的研究，修正了叙事权威和格言陈述的概念。我声称作者的关注，而不是通过强加入侵表现出来，可能会采取行动犹豫不决的形式，反映了生活经验与其艺术框架之间的最终不平衡。作为这种对知识和权威的相对主义立场的叙事象征，我处理在他们现在时态的内部话语中采取作者姿态的聚焦者，并通过这样做将存在主义的直接经验与艺术操纵并置。没有权威性的作者精神的最终轨迹是在由自由间接话语和矛盾代词参考构成的格言陈述中找到的。我的主要测试案例是 Michael Cunningham 的小说 By Nightfall (2010)，但我也讨论了它与包法利夫人、威尼斯之死和耻辱的互文网络。科恩对《威尼斯之死》的规范分析在对格言陈述的敏锐关注中起到了方法论上的启发。我建议通过在这两部小说的主人公之间进行类比，《夜幕降临》提供了对曼恩中篇小说的非传统阅读：坎宁安主人公的自嘲和审美完美主义占据了叙事话语，但仍然以第三人称提及他，这也表明阿申巴赫可能对他的垮台拥有比科恩准备允许的更多的叙事控制权。我的交叉分析，在经典读物和当代例子之间移动，