評論
打印
Good morning! In today's lecture we shall discuss what meaning is in literary works.
早上好！在今天的課上，我們將討論文學作品中的意義。
When we read novels, poems, etc. , we invariably ask ourselves a question—that is, what does the writer mean here?
當我們讀小說、詩歌等時，我們總是問自己一個問題——作者在這里是什么意思？
In other words, we are interested in finding out the meaning. But meaning is a difficult issue in literature.
換句話說，我們感興趣的是找出其中的意思。但意義是意思中的一個難題。
How do we know what a work of literature is supposed to mean or what its real meaning is?
我們怎么知道文學作品應該表達什么意思或者說它的真正含義是什么？
I'd like to discuss three ways to explain what meaning is.
我想討論三種解釋意思的方法。
No. 1, meaning is what is intended by the author.
第一，意思是作者的意圖。
No. 2, meaning is created by and contained in the text itself.
第二，意思由文本本身產生，并包含在文本中。
And No. 3, meaning is created by the reader.
第三，意思是由讀者創造的。
Now, let's take a look at the first approach—that is, meaning is what is intended by the author.
現在，讓我們看一看第一種方法，即，意思是作者想要表達的東西。
Does a work of literature mean what the author intended to mean? And if so, how can we tell?
文學作品是否表達了作者想要表達的意思？如果表達出來了，我們怎么分辨出來呢？
If all the evidence we have is the text itself and nothing else, we can only guess what ideas the author had according to our understanding of literature and world.
如果掌握的資料只有文本，沒有別的，我們只能根據對文學和世界的理解猜測作者的想法。
In order to have a better idea of what one particular author means in one of his works, I suggest that you do the following:
為了更好地了解某一位作者在其某一部作品中的主要意圖，我建議你做以下工作:
First, go to the library and read other works by the same author.
首先，去圖書館閱讀同一作者的其他作品。
Second, get to know something about what sort of meanings seem to be common in literary works in that particular tradition and at that time.
第二，了解一下，在當時特定的傳統中，文學作品中普遍存在的意義是什么樣的。
In other words, we need to find out what the literary trends were in those days.
換句話說，我們需要找出當時的文學趨勢。
And last, get to know what were the cultural values and symbols of the time.
最后，了解當時的文化價值觀和象征。
I guess you can understand the author's meaning much more clearly after you do the related background research.
我想在你做了相關的背景調查之后，可以更清楚地理解作者的意思。
