Narrate, Falsehood, Cure: Unreliable Narratives in When We Were Orphans

Narrate, Falsehood, Cure: Unreliable Narratives in When We Were Orphans

Jing Liu

Abstract   When We Were Orphans tells the story of Banks, who solved the truth of his parents' disappear-ance, faced his own trauma, and reached a reconciliation with himself through his memories and retrospectives. Unreliable narrative theory provides a new perspective for interpreting When We Were Orphans. Through the narrative perspective, fact/event axis and value/judgment axis, the unreliability of the narrative in the text is analyzed, and the reasons for the unreliability of the narrative are explored in combination with the theory of memory and trauma, and the healing effect of the unreliable narrative is further explored. In this way, it analyzes how Banks reconfirmed his self-identity and found his identity through the unreliability of narrative and the reconciliation of the past, in the context of trauma and multiculturalism.

Keywords   Kazuo Ishiguro When We Were Orphans； Unreliable Narrative； Memory； Trauma； Self-Differentiation

叙述、谎言、疗愈：《上海孤儿》中的不可靠叙述

刘静

摘要：石黑一雄的作品《上海孤儿》讲述了班克斯通过对往事的回忆与追溯，解开童年时父母失踪真相，直面自己心灵创伤，与自我达成和解的故事。不可靠叙述理论为解读《上海孤儿》提供一个全新的视角。结合叙述视角，通过在事实/事件轴与价值/判断轴解读文中叙述的不可靠，并从记忆与创伤角度探析叙述不可靠的原因，进而深入挖掘不可靠叙述对班克斯创伤的疗愈作用，分析通过叙述的不可靠，班克斯如何与往事达成和解，如何在创伤与多元文化背景下重新确立自我身份，寻得文化认同与归属。

关键词：石黑一雄《上海孤儿》；不可靠叙述；记忆；创伤；二我差