The Aesthetics and Hermeneutics of the Secret in Contemporary British Fiction, 1998-2018

我的专著长度的博士研究项目首次探讨了当代英国小说中作为一种叙事美学的“秘密”。我会争辩说，秘密，在它的隐藏和有选择地传播知识的过程中，破坏了新自由主义的保密文化，这是新自由主义转变社会关系的关键。在这种颠覆中，跨越公共保密登记的不同历史时代，我认为秘密包括小说中不断变化的战场，在那里新自由主义对社会关系的转变被曝光和争夺。我的研究扩展了新自由主义的概念，认为它是一种产生特定社会关系和存在形式的全球理性(Brown2005，Fisher 2009，Darot and Laval 2011，Chandler and Reid 2016)。我的核心主张是，在新自由主义时代，理解不断变化的泄密和保密方法是理解当代英国小说的关键。我将分析杰基·凯的《小号》(1998)、纳迪姆·阿斯拉姆的《失落情人的地图》(2004)、安东尼·约瑟夫的《不明飞行物的非洲起源》(2006)、扎迪斯·史密斯的《N-W》(2012)和萨莉·鲁尼的《普通人》(2018)。就个人而言，这些获奖的小说和作家形成了一个新兴的学术机构，但还没有通过他们的秘密美学进行比较研究。

My monograph-length doctoral research project offers the first investigation of 'the secret' as a narrativeaesthetic in contemporary British fiction. I will argue that the secret, in its concealment and selectiveredistribution of knowledge, disrupts a neoliberal culture of secrecy key to neoliberalism's transformationof social relations. In this disruption, across different historical times for the registration of public secrecy,I argue that the secret comprises a changing battleground in fiction, where neoliberalism'stransformation of social relations is exposed and contested. My research extends on a conception ofneoliberalism as a global rationality producing certain social relations and forms of existence (Brown2005, Fisher 2009, Dardot and Laval 2011, Chandler and Reid 2016). My central claim is thatunderstanding changing approaches to the breaking and keeping of secrets is key to understandingcontemporary British fiction in an age of neoliberalism. I will analyse Jackie Kay's Trumpet (1998),Nadeem Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), Anthony Joseph's The African Origins of UFOs (2006), ZadieSmith's N-W (2012), and Sally Rooney's Normal People (2018). Individually, these award-winning novelsand writers form an emerging body of scholarship but are yet to be studied comparatively via theiraesthetics of the secret.