Abstract:

This article brings theories of epistolarity to bear on contemporary debates over the nature of fictional character through a reading of Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now. I argue that the many transcribed letters in the novel challenge the dichotomy of character as either textual or mimetic by replicating a medium through which real persons are encountered as texts, temporarily placing readers and characters in parallel interpretive positions and collapsing the divide between fictional and real. Trollope’s insistence on treating his characters as if they were real people is not at odds with their status as textual objects: instead, the perceived realism of Trollope’s characters stems in part from the familiarity with which we encounter their epistolary self-constructions and the way those letters replicate a medium of communication between nonfictional persons that renders them texts.

摘要：

本文通过阅读安东尼·特罗洛普 (Anthony Trollope) 的《我们现在的生活方式》 ( The Way We Live Now)，将书信体理论与当代关于虚构人物本质的辩论联系起来. 我认为，小说中的许多转录字母挑战了文字或模仿的角色二分法，通过复制真实人物作为文本的媒介，暂时将读者和角色置于平行的解释位置，并消除虚构与真实之间的鸿沟. 特罗洛普坚持把他的人物当作真实的人对待，这与他们作为文本对象的地位并不矛盾：相反，特罗洛普笔下人物的真实感部分源于我们对他们书信自我建构的熟悉程度，以及他们的方式。信件复制了非虚构人物之间的交流媒介，使他们成为文本。