镣铐的开释 -- 试论唐绝句中的对话 = THE SHACKLED PAROLE : A LOOK AT DIALOGUE IN TANG QUATRAINS

Abstract

Dialogue always plays an important role in fictional narrative. Dialogue between characters in fiction, drama, prose can usually be used to develop the plot. What will the role of dialogue be when it comes to the narrative in poetry? This paper will focus on the Quatrain which is the shortest form of poem in Chinese poetry. Due to the short length, poems of this form are difficult to narrate, and to embed a dialogue into a poem that consists of only four lines would certainly be difficult. However, dialogue is quite commonly found in Quatrains, and surprisingly it always tends to be the best part of the poem, although it may not appear very frequently. A lot of well-known masterpieces in Tang Quatrains contain dialogue. What effects do dialogues bring to a Quatrain? Compared to dialogues in other genres, what is so special about dialogues in Quatrains? And how should we explain the state achieved when there are so many limitations, e.g. number of words and rhymes etc., posed by the rules of traditional Chinese poetry? This paper seeks to use this paradoxical subject, the dialogue in Quatrains, as a breakthrough point to analyse different kinds of effects that different dialogues achieved in different texts. We will make references to literary theory and criticism from both Chinese and Western traditions throughout the discussion, while solving the above problems, hopefully we can also learn more about the properties and uniqueness in Classical Chinese poetry. This dissertation is divided into four parts. The first part discusses about the addresser and addressee in poem. By using some narratological methods, the indecidability for interpreting the text is discovered. The second part discusses how different punctuation markings can affect the speaking voices. It also shows that understandings of different types of speech and spectacle can affect interpretations towards certain poems. The third part focuses on the genre properties of Quatrains, investigates the break and flow of meaning in Quatrains by analysing sentence types and structures. By looking at several terms that are commonly used in traditional Chinese poetry criticism, the last part seeks to deal with the paradoxes and ideals in Chinese poetry, and find out the fundamental reason why dialogues in Quatrains are so attractive.