On The Narration Of Sound In The Case Of A Dream Of Red Mansions

In recent years,auditory culture and sound issues attract more attention.Studying classical novel “A Dream in Red Mansions” from perspective of sonic narration,will provide a new theoretical perspective for narrative study.“A Dream in Red Mansions” originated from talk-art,the narrator often tells the story as a “speaker” unconsciously,usage of speaking skills evokes receivers' auditory sense.The novel has visuality as well as audibility.Ancient visual arts and auditory arts have common internal logic,which creates possibility for binding of auditory thinking and visual thinking.“Soundscape” concept proposed by Shaffer imitates one way in drawing: firstly underpainting and then detailing,which provides method for analyzing complex symphony of various sound resonance.By analyzing interrelation among various sounds in soundscape,we can know living circumstances of sounders.Sonic narration of“A Dream in Red Mansions” mainly uses re-chronization of time.Re-chronization means appropriate adjustment of narrative sequence and timing sequence,which is a kind of non-destructive temporal deformation.The reasons that why sound is able to narrate are: firstly,time flows at an unconstant speed,human's perception of time is influenced by attention,emotion and recall.Perceptual factors included in sound can easily evoke emotion and become the key point of connecting past and future.Secondly,sometimes sounds like clock are time nodes that can be precisely seized in time flow,which will provide clue for time judging,clock sound is even a metaphor of life.Thirdly,there is anachronism in “A Dream in Red Mansions”,which includes flash-forward and flashback,influenced by divination,poetry prophecy,book of prophecy and name punning methods used in flash-forward are achieved by using euphony,voices are the key of decoding.There is a kind of listening relationship among characters of the novel,which is invisible and underlying.The most typical one is listening relationship between Baoyuand Daiyu.Baoyu listens to Daiyu more than staring.By comparing residential soundscapes of these two characters,we can know that they live lonely.Jia Mansion ignores and misinterprets their sounds all the time,which lays the foundation of affection between them.Because of personal characteristics,Baoyu and Daiyu open the mind towards each other,which makes listening relationship possible.They can also identify acutely perceptual factors included in each other's sound.All these help them perceive true meaning and implication of each other.